Known for his out-of-the-box thinking and quick decision-making, retired bureaucrat Praveen Pardeshi has been appointed the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Pardeshi, said to be close to Fadnavis, has been tasked with preparing Maharashtra’s Vision 2047, and making the state a trillion-dollar economy.
Before that, Pardeshi, 63, held several posts, and played a significant role as the municipal commissioner of the civic bodies in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The 1985-batch IAS officer was also commended for his role as the district collector when a massive earthquake struck Latur in 1993.
Building a road
As the commissioner of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) from 2007 to 2010, Pardeshi had gone out of his way to construct a safe road for motorists and two-wheeler riders. The narrow stretch riddled with potholes, a part of the Pune-Mumbai highway at Khadki, had seen nearly 200 two-wheeler riders being killed in 10 years. It also caused heavy traffic on the Pune-Mumbai highway both in Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The Indian Express had highlighted the pathetic condition of the road, and the danger it posed to the lives of the travellers repeatedly since 1996. However, neither the local cantonment board nor the people’s representatives could do anything about it.
”The stretch was under the Khadki Cantonment Board, which had thrown up its hands to redo the road, citing lack of funds,” said Dominic Lobo, former vice president of the Khadki Cantonment.
When Pardeshi took charge as the PMC commissioner, he showed his readiness to redo the road. ”Though the road is not under PMC’s jurisdiction, I will talk to the Khadki Cantonment Board, and take the responsibility of making it safer for commuters. We will construct the road under JNNURM. I will talk to the Union ministry about this,” Pardeshi told The Indian Express.
Days later, PMC came up with a plan to construct the road at a cost of Rs 23 crore.
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On May 8, 2009, the concretised road was thrown open to the public, and in the last 16 years, accidents have reduced on the stretch, which runs nearly two kilometres.
”Before the road was made, every year 15 to 20 two-wheeler riders died on the road in accidents after being hit by heavy vehicles. This was because the road used to be full of potholes and craters. After the road was made, accidents have reduced by 90 to 95 per cent,” said Lobo.
After the road was concretised, traffic chaos also eased to an extent.
Civic body officials said when Pardeshi took the decision to construct a road which was not under PMC’s jurisdiction, it was the first time such a thing had happened. “I think that was a historic decision to go out of the way, and construct a road which was not under the PMC jurisdiction,” said K C Karkar, former PMC deputy municipal commissioner.
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Pardeshi also took up the task of constructing a flyover on the road which leads to Yerawada from Khadki.
Handling a controversy
In Pimpri-Chinchwad, where he served as the municipal commissioner from 1997 to 1999, Pardeshi undertook the long-pending widening work on the Pune-Mumbai highway. The administration stepped in after The Indian Express highlighted the state of the road.
However, the road-widening project led to a controversy when the civic administration decided to chop down as many as 1,000 trees. A nature lover, Pardeshi came up with an idea to transplant the trees, which ultimately drew praise for him.
“It was pending for years. First, Pardeshi undertook the road widening during his tenure, then Dilip Band as the civic chief, carried it forward. These two officers pushed the faster development of Pimpri-Chinchwad,” said activist Manav Kamble.
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Pardeshi was also known as a tough officer. He filed a First Information Report (FIR) against two PMC engineers for negligence after an incident of wall collapse — in an action taken for the first time.
Pardeshi also served as the principal and additional chief secretary to Fadnavis during his tenure as the chief minister from 2014 to 2019. In 2021, he took voluntary retirement after he lost the opportunity to become state chief secretary. Before being appointed CEA to the chief minister, he was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Maharashtra Institution of Transformation (MITRA).
