Helping the poor and the dishoused realise their dream of owning a house has been my biggest dream...So says outgoing Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Dilip Band. “As many as 13,500 flats will come up in Pimpri-Chinchwad in next two-three years. The poor will own a flat worth Rs 12 lakh by paying barely Rs 1.5 lakh. Initially, they just have to pay Rs 30,000,” says Band even as he packs his bag to take charge as the Aurangabad municipal commissioner.

Not just the poor and the dishoused, even civic activists who crossed swords with him several times, politicians who were at loggerheads over his certain decisions, the shopkeepers who suffered at his hands as their shops made way for road widening, the average citizens who grumbled about water and shoddy roads are all singing paeans to an officer “who sought to change the ugly face” of the twin industrial township. Small wonder, then, a public felicitation has been planned this week for Dilip Band “for being one of the most outstanding commissioners the town has ever seen.”

Band finds himself in the midst of accolades, thanks to his decisive actions which have put Pimpri-Chinchwad on the development path, say civic activists. And his decisive actions began immediately after he assumed charge.

In 2004, a day after he took charge, Band went around the town and remarked: “Pimpri-Chinchwad is not a city, but a village...” Then Band had ridiculed the state of roads in town, but now when he is saying goodbye, he has ensured that Pimpri-Chinchwad has got the roads it deserved. For instance, the 10-laning concretisation work of the 13-km Pune-Mumbai highway under PCMC is nearing completion. One grade separator work is over, two grade separator s have caught speed. “Nearly 80 per cent of the road work including the highway and the internal roads has been completed,” points out Band. During his four-year tenure, the PCMC has invested as much Rs 1,500 crore for what Band often describes as “quality roads.”

Corporator Maruti Bhapkar, a Band baiter, says the Pune-Mumbai highway and even the Pune-Nashik highway could be widened because the commissioner put his foot down. Steamrolling protests from shopkeepers and politicians, Band had first cleaned up the Chinchwad station area and then flattened all the structures at Akurdi, Pimpri, Kasarwadi, Phugewadi and Dapodi. His demolition drive did not stop along the highways, but suburbs like Thergaon, Kalewadi, Sangvi, also were cleared of road encroachers. And he spared none: neither the average citizens nor the high and the mighty. Over 4000 structures were felled in four years.

“Band was ruthless. The town needed such an action keeping in view its future growth,” says activist Hemant Nahata. Band also became the first commissioner who removed the encroachers in Pimpri Camp, the nerve centre of town, where political heavies reign supreme. Apart from stressing on decent roads, Band is also credited with implementing a number of development projects -- some of which brought national fame to Pimpri-Chinchwad -- like the auto cluster project, the science city plan, the pet cemetry project and the water meter system. “PCMC’s total investment including on roads in last four years stands at Rs 4,000 crore,” says Band.

Band has also drawn praise from political parties for his efforts in getting around Rs 1,800 crore from Central Government under JNNURM.

Unlike the Pune Municipal Corporation administration which is struggling to implement the water meter system, the Band administration has succeeded in convincing one and all about the need for equitable distribution of water. The water meter system has already taken off in Pimpri-Chinchwad. “There was opposition from certain quarters, but the commissioner convinced them all,” say civic officials. On the slum rehabilitation front too, Band has chalked out a slum-less city plan. “About 18,000 flats will come up on land where hutments stood for years. The project has taken off,” says Band. “What Dilip Band did, future commissioners will find it difficult to emulate,” say corporators Prashant Shitole and Shankar Jagtap. “Band has been a decisive commissioner,” say his colleagues Dr Nagkumar Kunachgi and Dr Anand Jagdale.

However, Bhapkar and Nahata say Band scarred his reputation by allowing project costs to escalate. “For example, from Rs 12 crore, the Akurdi grade separator work rose to Rs 28 crore. Similar was the case with several projects. This raises doubts about Band’s functioning no matter how hard he tried to clarify things,” they say.