Old Bhandara Road project: All eyes on NMC

Staff Reporter :

Land acquisition lingering since 2017

The original land acquisition proposal was of year 2017 and later, the Maharashtra Government gave revised administrative sanction for continuing with the utilisation of allocated sum. Of the 590 properties identified for acquisition, about 15 are owned by NMC itself, 2 are of Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) and 58 are owned by various organisations of State Government. The remaining over 500 private properties having multiple owners have been meticulously catalogued for dispensation of compensation.

Now, the ball is in court of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) as to acquisition of properties that is coming in the way of widening of Old Bhandara Road. The project is lingering for the past 26 years. District Collector has notified the final award through a notification dated November 14, 2025, to acquire 15739.032 sq. metres of private and Government land that is needed to widen the road, from Mayo Hospital to Old Bhandara Road Motor Stand Square (18 metres), and from Bagdadiya Square till Sunil Hotel (30 metres). Collector had earlier deposited Rs 60 crore as part of the amount of award for providing compensation to land owners. Now further Rs 207 crore was released to wrap up the disbursement to the property owners.

Maharashtra Government has already sanctioned the proposal of District Collector and earmarked Rs 339 crore under Suvarna Jayanti Nagarouthan scheme for taking up widening of Old Bhandara Road that has been in limbo. The widening of the Old Bhandara Road that wades its way through wholesale markets of Gandhibagh and Itwari, has failed to take off for last so many years due to resistance of property owners. In between, Madhya Nagpur Vikas Aghadi led by Bhushan Dadwe and Ravindra Paigwar, ex-Chairman, NMC’s Standing Committee, had filed a PIL in High Court, seeking expediting the widening work as they claim precious time and money goes waste due to traffic snarls as the road width cannot handle the daily footfalls of thousands to the busy wholesale markets of city. The final award notified by the Collector lists the name of individual property owners, the land that is to be acquired for the purpose of widening of Old Bhandara Road, which starts from Mayo Hospital gate on Central Avenue.

The road widening that started about a year back could not progress beyond Chandralok Building as the much needed political push was missing. Though the compensation to property owners in Hansapuri and adjoining areas was already disbursed, NMC could not move ahead with acquisition as it hit the political bigwigs. So the road concretisation that started from Mayo Hospital gate could not progress beyond the Mominpura turning.

The contractor did not even care to complete the affixing of paver blocks due to which a big gap remained between the concrete road and road shoulder. Finally, the traders themselves had to fill up the road shoulder as NMC bosses too turned a blind eye towards the discomfort of citizens and road users. Over the years, Madhya Nagpur Vikas Aghadi kept up the push and now ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs Krishna Khopde and Pravin Datke gave the much-needed last push that led to faster moving of the award process. Prior to finalising the award, the joint measurement of the road width was taken up by officials from Town Planning and NMC.