Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
In a major administrative decision, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) headquarters, is about to shift to the centrally located Majnu Hill, soon. It will come up on 27 acres of land situated between the Maulana Azad Research Centre and the Rose Garden, it is learnt.
Meanwhile, the CSMC municipal commissioner and administrator G Sreekanth has ordered the heads of various sections to work on it and speed up the process to table the proposal for administrative approval in the meeting. Later on, the administrator will pass the resolution of shifting the headquarters after four decades.
The status of the municipal council got elevated to the municipal corporation in 1982. The Town Hall was the headquarters in the olden days and continued to remain so even after its elevation. The civic headquarter is a Centrepoint of city politics. Presently, the headquarters comprise three buildings. However, the officers and the staff are found complaining of facing the shortage of spaces either to expand the office spaces or make any changes.
Presently, the main old building of the headquarters has the offices of the mayor, deputy mayor, standing committee chairman, house leader, chairman of subject committees, leader of the opposition and other office-bearers, apart from the general body (GB) and the standing committee meeting halls. Of them, the renovation of GB Hall and the municipal commissioner’s office is underway.
Besides, in the three-storeyed extended building, the offices of the city engineer, water supply, drainage, Town Planning, Gunthewari and other technical sections are there. All of them are facing a shortage of space.
Pandey started a hunt for office
The then municipal commissioner and the sitting district collector Astik Kumar Pandey has launched the search for suitable land to shift the civic headquarters. In the meantime, the four and a half acres of land, situated at Shahnoormiyan Dargah Chowk, which
was given to the developer on a BoT basis for development was taken back in hope. Taking a cue from it, the new commissioner continued the search and got succeeded.
It so happened that the municipal commissioner during his visit to the Dr Abul Kalam Azad Research Centre (at Majnu Hill) spotted the sprawling land. He found the site suitable for shifting the headquarters. If it comes up, it will be constructed on a height and would be visible from a faraway distance. Hence he initiated to materialise the proposal soon.