The municipal chief further directed all ward offices and heads of civic departments to get Engineers India Ltd (EIL) to inspect the quality of development works. (File Photo)The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to set up a war room to monitor infrastructure projects.“It is necessary to ensure that the projects are completed on time, the quality of work should be good, and projects should be made operational on time for the benefit of citizens. Thus, a war room is being set up for monitoring the projects,” said Pune Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram on Thursday.The war room will have a nodal officer of the rank of a deputy municipal commissioner to coordinate between the head of all civic departments and the municipal commissioner.“The nodal officer will have to collect the updated information every 15 days on the status of projects from the respective civic department in charge and submit it to the municipal commissioner,” Ram added.Also Read | Monthly passenger numbers at Pune Airport increase by 1.7 lakh in 2 yearsThe municipal commissioner said the war room will focus on getting projects completed on time, and if there are any hurdles in project implementation, then the issue will be raised with the government department concerned.The municipal chief further directed all ward offices and heads of civic departments to get Engineers India Ltd (EIL) to inspect the quality of development works.“It is mandatory to do third-party quality assurance of civic development work above Rs 5 lakh. The PMC has an agreement with EIL for the period from 2022 to 2027. However, it has been noticed that it is not being strictly followed by many ward offices and civic departments. Elected representatives and citizens have been complaining about it,” said Ram.Story continues below this adThe project in-charges are either conducting third-party quality assurance through other organisations or the head of the civic department instead of EIL, he added.“This is very serious and against administrative discipline. If it is not possible to do quality assurance through EIL in exceptional circumstances, then the permission to do it through another agency should be taken from the additional municipal commissioner concerned,” the Pune municipal commissioner stated.Ram also said that additional municipal commissioners should ensure that at least 10 per cent of total civic works executed in a year is randomly checked by the civic vigilance department and the report is submitted to the municipal commissioner’s office. The PMC chief added that the project in charge or the department head will be held responsible if discrepancies are found.The Pune Metro, River Front Development (RFD), River Rejuvenation Project through soft loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the uninterrupted water supply project are among the prominent projects currently being implemented in Pune.Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read MoreClick here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:pune