Kamal Ghorui
Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has increased the number of its zonal (ward) offices from the existing eight to 10, nearly four months after local BJP MLA Shankar Jagtap raised the demand citing the city’s growing population and rapid urban expansion.In an official notification issued on Wednesday, the civic body stated that the revised administrative structure, including new ward boundaries for each regional office, will come into effect from May 25. The municipal corporation has also decided to rename the buildings of these ward offices after historic forts of Maharashtra. At present, the offices are identified using English alphabets.“Section 29-A of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act has a provision for the formation of ward committees based on population. In line with this provision, the municipal corporation, during its general body meeting held on March 13, 2026, approved a proposal to restructure the existing eight ward committees and increase their number to 10 to improve administrative efficiency and strengthen citizen-centric service delivery” a senior PCMC official said.He further added “Following this restructuring, the 32 electoral wards constituted for the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation general elections 2025-26 have also been redistributed region-wise under the newly reorganised ward committees.”The civic body has last increased the number of ward offices in 2017, when they were expanded from six to eight.In a letter submitted to the municipal commissioner in January this year, Jagtap had pointed out that Pimpri Chinchwad’s population had increased from around 17 lakh in 2011 to nearly 30 lakh at present. He had argued that each ward office should ideally cater to a population of not more than three lakh residents to ensure efficient delivery of civic services.With the addition of two new ward offices, the civic administration will now have to deploy additional manpower to manage operations at the new facilities. A senior official on the condition of anonymity said each ward office requires an additional manpower of around 40 to 50 people, other than the senior officers like executive or deputy engineers.Additional municipal commissioner Vikrant Bagade said the expansion would not put any additional burden on the existing workforce, as the civic administration has decided to streamline operations by assigning works related to multiple departments, including civil and drainage, to one executive engineer and one deputy engineer in each ward. “The two additional ward offices will be operated using the existing manpower,” he said.
