Curation Team
PUNE: The Federation of Chakan Industries has highlighted a lack of basic infrastructure in the industrial area, such as roads, water supply and schools.
“Improving amenities would encourage employees working in the area to live closer to their workplaces. Currently, employees are forced to reside in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, adding pressure on these municipal corporations and on traffic infrastructure,” Dilip Batwal, secretary of the association, told officials present at an inter-departmental meeting held on Wednesday.
Officials who attended the meeting included the CEO of Pune Zilla Parishad, Gajanan Patil, along with representatives from local factories, gram panchayats, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), Khed panchayat samiti, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL), Public Works Department (PWD), and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
Industry representatives also suggested building a modern primary health centre in the area, as the current one is not accessible, and proposed a solution for waste management issues.
Patil advised the Kuruli Gram Panchayat to submit a proposal for the health centre and also suggested using village lands for waste processing and generating income through gas production. He also instructed gram panchayats not to collect property tax directly from factories. “MIDC will collect the taxes and share half of it with the gram panchayats,” he said.
Industry representatives also raised issues such as water availability, frequent electricity cuts, and road connectivity. “Road connectivity to MIDC should be expanded to reduce traffic on the Pune-Nashik highway,” Batwal said.
A separate meeting was held by the Pimpri Chinchwad police commissionerate on April 8 and presided over by police commissioner Vinoy Kumar Choubey to address security-related issues of industrial areas. Industry representatives from several companies, including Batwal, were present at the meeting.
The police department instructed companies to install high-definition CCTV cameras with storage of at least 15-30 days outside their compound walls to improve security. The department said that companies should make provision for parking inside the company premises instead of on public roads, and where such provision is not possible, they should install CCTV cameras and deploy security guards.
