One controversial MD of MSRDC makes way for another
The Maharashtra state government is expected to replace controversial IAS officer Radheshyam Mopalwar with Anil Gaikwad as managing director of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation. Gaikwad, who has faced suspension in the past, will be the first non-IAS officer to head the corporation. Mopalwar will continue as director-general of infrastructure.
MUMBAI: The state government is set to relieve controversial IAS officer Radheshyam Mopalwar from the post of managing director of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and is likely to appoint MSRDC joint managing director Anil Gaikwad in his stead, although formal orders are yet to be issued.
Gaikwad, who has retired from government service and is currently employed on a contractual basis, is equally controversial, having faced suspension many years earlier in the PWD scam in which NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal was arrested. He was later reinstated and made PWD secretary and later joint MD of MSRDC. All the officers in the PWD scam were subsequently discharged by the Special Investigation Team jointly set up by the Enforcement Directorate and the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
The appointment of Gaikwad, whose brother Sunil Gaikwad used to be a BJP MP from Latur, has upset many IAS officers since this is the first time that a non-IAS officer has been chosen to head MSRDC. The corporation was created to handle infrastructure projects during the tenure of the first Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government in 1995 by then public works minister Nitin Gadkari. It built the Mumbai-Pune expressway, the Bandra-Worli sea link and over 50 flyovers in Mumbai. It was practically defunct when Fadnavis resurrected it for the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway, and chose Mopalwar to handle his pet project.
Mopalwar, an IAS officer of the 1995 batch, has been MSRDC MD during the tenure of three successive governments—appointed by Fadnavis in 2016, he was retained by the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government and later the Eknath Shinde-led government. Significantly, since 2014, it was Shinde who mostly handled the MSRDC as minister, and Mopalwar worked closely with him. After he became chief minister, Shinde created the post of director-general of infrastructure to oversee the work of infra-building in the state and appointed Mopalwar to it. Currently, Mopalwar holds both posts.
After he was appointed, Mopalwar faced several charges and went on leave till his name was cleared by a committee headed by a retired chief secretary. His decisions and role in acquiring land for the Mumbai-Nagpur project was controversial as was his act of getting a private detective and his wife, who he claimed were blackmailing him, arrested. They were acquitted by the court this year.
The civil servant claimed that he himself had asked the state government earlier this month to relieve him of his additional charge as CMD of MSRDC. Sources in the government said that as of now, Mopalwar, who retired in 2018 and has received seven extensions till now, will continue as DG, Infrastructure.
Gaikwad joined the irrigation department as junior engineer after clearing the AMIE in 1989 and joined the PWD as assistant executive engineer from 2020 to 2021. He was secretary of PWD (Works) in 2020 and 2021 and was later employed on a contractual basis with MSRDC as joint MD (Technical). “My prime task is to develop infrastructure in the state,” he said. “The immediate task is to complete the Samruddhi Expressway by the end of May and the missing link of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway by December 2024. The work on the Bandra-Versova sea link is lagging behind and we will have to speed that up.”
Stay updated with all the Breaking News and Latest News from Mumbai. Click here for comprehensive coverage of top Cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and more across India along with Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News.
Stay updated with all the Breaking News and Latest News from Mumbai. Click here for comprehensive coverage of top Cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and more across India along with Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News.