RADHESHYAM MOPALWAR: MASTER PLANNER FOR MAHARASHTRA’S DYNAMIC GROWTH

“There will always be obstacles and challenges that stand in your way. Building mental strength will help you develop resilience to those potential hazards so you can continue on your journey to success.” This is a famous quotation from Amy Morin, a renowned author. These words seem to be portraying personality traits of Radheshyam Mopalwar, a 1995 batch IAS officer, who is presently discharging his duties as Director General, War Room (Infrastructure Projects), Government of Maharashtra. With his steely determination, Mopalwar successfully tackled all the challenges that came his way while executing different projects since the beginning of his bureaucratic and administrative career in the state. The fool-proof plans that he made and got implemented resulted in completion of projects. Timely delivery of projects has been one of the major thrusts that Mopalwar always worked with. He is considered to be a master-planner of Maharashtra, as the state witnessed dynamic growth because of Mopalwar’s well-crafted strategy and planning.

Senior IAS officer, Mopalwar, who retired in 2018 and was given extension to take care of projects of MSRDC as its VC and MD, is understood to have huge planning skills and caliber to get the projects executed and implemented in a hassle free manner. With vast administrative experience behind him, Mopalwar executed a prestigious project Gurta Gaddi at Nanded when he was collector of the district between 2005 and 2009. Mopalwar’s planning had helped Nanded district to have a massive infrastructure development facilitating the smooth celebration of the festival, known as Gurta Gaddi, in Nanded, which is home to one of the five most important seats of authority of Sikhs, the Takhat Sachkhand Shri Hazur Abchalngar Sahib. In April 2005, the Sachkhand Gurudwara Board and the Nanded Waghala City Municipal Corporation drew up plans for the celebration for which a gathering of 30 lakh pilgrims was expected. It was a huge task as the city’s population was five lakh only then. Mopalwar, who took over as Nanded Collector on March 1, 2005, prepared a plan to develop infrastructure to house pilgrims and facilitate easy access to the city. He presented the plan to the then PM Manmohan Singh in Pune. He explained the entire situation to the prime minister. The Centre agreed to bear 50 per cent of the cost of the project which included development of Nanded city under JNNURM. It was due to Mopalwar’s planning that the city could be prepared for celebrations for better roads and increased supplies of drinking water, apart from tackling the problem of housing the large number of pilgrims. Now the old buildings have been replaced by new accommodation complexes spread over 2.24 lakh sq ft. There are 1,500 rooms in this complex, which surrounds the Gurudwara. The new plan gave the Gurdwara precincts a spacious courtyard of 2.8 lakh sq ft and an outer corridor of 4 lakh sq ft. This space is enough to ensure easy movement of pilgrims during the celebrations. So, the Nanded infrastructure development for Gurta Gaddi is a saga that shows Mopalwar as a master-planner. After this, there was no looking back for Mopalwar, as he continued to prepare one plan or the other with its implementation at regular intervals, paving the way for huge infrastructure growth in Maharashtra.

As Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, Mopalwar completed the flagship project of the state government, namely Samruddhi Mahamarg, 701-km Expressway connecting Nagpur to Mumbai. The completion of a major part of this project ahead of deadline is attributed to Mopalwar. His immense planning efficiency and phenomenal administrative skills ensured successful completion of the project so far. Mopalwar’s planning is appreciated in the War Room where he is working as DG Infrastructure Projects. He was given charge of the war room in December 2022. Mopalwar’s valuable suggestions to various projects being discussed in the war room are of immense use for the entire team associated with the execution part of the task. Mopalwar is believed to have steered Maharashtra through numerous challenges to achieve growth of Maharashtra in the infrastructural sphere. The War Room is benefiting from Mopalwar’s experience in land acquisition for the on-going Bullet Train project. The land acquisition has been completed in Gujarat, and also a considerable part of this process has been completed in Maharashtra as well. Mopalwar’s guidance is making it a smooth process for the team to acquire land for the Bullet Train project. Mopalwar is contributing his inputs during discussion in the war room over two major transport projects—the Neo Metro and Nashik-Pune semi-high speed rail. The state team of war room is set to expedite the projects for which Mopalwar has also been consulted on many occasions. Government is banking on Mopalwar’s vision and skills to execute complex projects