City left with several scrapped and half-finished projects

Nashik: Several ambitious projects under the Nashik Smart City Mission failed to take off during its nine-year run between 2017 and 2025, with many eventually scrapped or cancelled by the Smart City corporation itself.The much needed pay-and-park project collapsed due to issues with the appointed contractor and was finally handed over to the Nashik Municipal Corporation about six years after it failed to roll out.The rent-a-cycle scheme was discontinued after implementation owing to operational issues, while some of the major and minor road projects planned under the Area Based Development (ABD) component were cancelled mid way. Another flagship Greenfield project (Town Planning scheme) — a proposed township spread over 753 hectares in the Makhmalabad area in the city — was also shelved.Under its smart city project, the Nashik Municipal Smart City Development Corporation (NMSCDCL) had planned to set up a new township at Makhmalabad considering the expansion of Nashik city.The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) was the planning authority for the project and has planned to acquire over 753 acres of land involving landowners of Makhmalabad to set up infrastructure like roads, water supply, drainage etc. The cost of the project was pegged at over Rs300 crore.As per the draft of the township project, farmers were to be given 55% of the land they give for integrated development of the areas, while infrastructure like roads, public amenities space were to be developed on the remaining 45% of the land. The farmers were to be given the developed plots well-equipped with modern amenities, green belt, water supply, sewage supply lines, wide roads, parking spaces and host of other facilities. But the project was shelved due to much delay by the smart city corporation for its implementation and also due to strong opposition from the farmers.NMSCDCL had also proposed multi-level parking projects at two locations in the city- one near Seeta Gufa and another at Raviwar Karanja. The smart city corporation had also floated bids but had not received response. The smart city corporation worked with slow pace on this project and finally the multi-level parking project had been cancelled.