Kolhapur civic body's road revamp proposal likely to be approved

The proposal of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) to revamp footpaths, drains and roads at the cost of Rs 179 crore is anticipated to get approval from the state urban development department on Wednesday. Eknath Shinde, the Urban development minister, held a meeting with the senior officials on Tuesday to discuss the KMC proposal, but the meeting could not take place. Rajesh Kshirsagar, Executive chairman of the state planning commission and Shiv Sena’s former Kolhapur city MLA, told the media that the meeting got postponed to Wednesday. He said that the proposal sent by KMC has recently received technical approval and that he wrote to the minister a few days ago to speed up the final approval process to grant the funds and that the roads, footpaths and drains are severely damaged from Kolhapur city because of floods and heavy rains. He said that the funds would help KMC rebuild the damaged roads. Kshirsagar told the media that the share of the state towards the project is Rs 124.60 crore, and KMC will raise the remaining Rs 53.40 crore funds. This will be the first big project with a significant outlay in recent years if sanctioned. The KMC has received Rs 25 crore to rebuild the damaged roads after the 2019 floods. Rs 15 crore had been approved by Shinde during his visit earlier this year. Kshirsagar told the media that most of the roads that got damaged because of heavy rains had been listed in the project proposal, and the terms and conditions regarding the timeline for completion of the road rebuilding work will be fixed after getting approval from the government. He said that they are hopeful of completing the work in less than a year. Image Source Also read: KMDA to check structural condition of three bridges in Kolkata