Nagpur: Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis envisons Nagpur as a a truly smart city in the near future as he pushes for implementation of multiple projects spanning diverse sectors such as health, traffic and waste management etc. During an interaction with the media on Saturday in the city, Fadnavis talked about the multiple fronts he was working on to ensure that Nagpur is firmly on the path to sustainable development. One of the biggest issues facing Nagpur is of garbage disposal, and for that a massive biogas plant will be set up. Fadnavis said, “Bhoomi puja for the country’s first plant to produce 27 million cubic metre of compound biogas every year, which is coming up at Nagpur’s Bhandewadi dumping yard, will be performed on December 2.”


The Netherlands’ Sustainable Business Development (SusBDe) company had entered into an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation to process 1,200 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste that the city generates every day. On April 13 this year, the then municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B had signed the MoU with the company which is setting up the country’s first plant which will produce 27 million cubic metre (mcm) of compound biogas every year. The plant, which will become fully functional in November 2024, will start treating approximately 600 metric tonnes wet waste every day. This is the first project in the country to process such a large amount of waste.Fadnavis said once the plant is fully functional, all landfill areas of Bhandewadi will be reclaimed. “No garbage will be dumped in the coming days,” he said. NMC has already allocated 30 acres land at Bhandewadi for the purpose. It has no other financial obligation. The NMC is supposed to get Rs15 lakh annually from the company. Also, the civic body will have an equal share in the carbon credit after processing the waste.Traffic on city roads is yet another civic issue. Now Artificial Intelligence (AI) will help navigate the congested lanes. A government-funded ₹197 crore Intelligent and Integrated Traffic Management System (IITMS) project will help curb traffic congestion. Fadnavis said, “Traffic signals controlled by AI will significantly reduce waiting time at various intersections as the functioning of the signals will be based on the size of traffic. Through satellites, the traffic data will be monitored and the software will then guide on how to regulate the traffic signals.” The Southwest Nagpur MLA, however, expressed concern over non-compliance of rules by drivers. “Driving wrong side and violating other rules is definitely there and we will be taking stringent action,” he said. Regarding helmets for pillion riders, he said, “Earlier, I used to think that no one will wear helmet in Nagpur, but now the rule is being followed more strictly here than Pune. For pillion riders also we will introduce the helmet rule.” With Nagpur Metro’s phase II work due to start soon, Fadnavis revealed plans for transportation on ring road. “We want to provide effective transport service on the ring road through electric buses, trolley buses etc. We need to have good feeder service for ring road so that people have option to connect to other areas. We have already told the Tata company to prepare a feasibility report on this,” he said. Regarding concers of farmers growing oranges and exporting them to Bangladesh, Fadnavis said, “In the cabinet meeting we discussed if some subsidy can be given on import duty which the farmers have to bear. We are trying to prepare a working model to study that if for example the import duty is ₹82, and if the government pays 50% of this then, what impact will be there. We will study the report and take a decision soon.”