Aurangabad:
District collector Astik Kumar Pandey, on Thursday, directed the key authorities of departments concerned, to complete the construction, development or strengthening of all the roads (in the city and the district) approaching the heritage monuments and tourist places by December 31, 2022. He also instructed them to start the visitors centre at Ajanta Caves, soon.
A meeting was organised to review the preparations regarding the visit of international delegates, who will be visiting as a part of the G20 Summit, on February 13 and 14, 2023.
According to the sources, he instructed the authorities to strengthen and develop roads leading to Ajanta and Ellora Caves; resolve the issue of land acquisition; speed up and complete the road works passing through Chowka and Harsul; complete tarring of Sillod bypass road (its work order has been issued). The development of a 7-km long road is lying pending due to the change in the decision of developing the road from two lanes to four lanes.
He also said that if any water supply scheme near the tourist place is lying defunct due to non-payment of electricity bills and water tax of the irrigation department, then the effort should be made to revive these water schemes in 15 days, said the sources. It may be noted that the decision over the outstanding bills will be taken by the government at its level.
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The authorities concerned informed him that the completion of the main road leading to Ajanta will be done on priority as 15 per cent work is lying pending. It will be ready for the smooth ride of the delegates before their arrival. Besides, efforts are being made to at least complete the two lanes of the road to the Ajanta Caves. A patch of 2 km road is pending in Ajanta Ghat. Efforts are underway to complete it in eight days. There is a need for at least Rs 15 crore for the Harsul Road. The state government has been apprised about it during the video-conferencing meeting held on November 18 and the decision on it is expected to be held soon.
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Pandey also instructed the officials to illuminate the squares and circles situated in the city and on the roads leading to the tourist places. The condition of the majority of the roads in the city are in good condition, but conduct a spot inspection of roads, especially those leading to the tourist places and undertake the repairing and maintenance works. It should be done on a priority basis.
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The G 20 Summit delegation comprising 500 high-ranking bureaucrats and officials will be visiting Ajanta, Ellora and other heritage sites. Hence the collector reviewed the arrangements relating to their accommodations, security, transportation, and tourist-friendly facilities at Ellora and Ajanta, repairing of roads leading to heritage places, display of direction boards on these roads, water supply arrangements etc.
Ellora Festival on cards
The review meeting also held a discussion on the proposed Ellora festival during the visit of the delegation. The pre-meeting was attended by managing director (of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation) Shradha Joshi, superintendent of police (SP) Manish Kalwaniya, additional collector Anant Gavhane and deputy collector Prabhoday Muley. MTDC general manager Chandrashekhar Jaiswal made the presentation about the festival in the meeting.