Nagpur: Civic authorities have been directed to immediately complete a joint survey of encroachments on govt land and roads across the city, with Nagpur Municipal Corporation, district administration, Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), Public Works Department (PWD) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) asked to coordinate the exercise.The directive was issued at a meeting of the Nagpur district encroachment action task force held at the NMC headquarters on Friday. The task force was constituted under the chairmanship of municipal commissioner Vipin Itankar following a meeting chaired by guardian minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule to intensify action against encroachments.Officials have been asked to conduct a physical survey of all encroached sites and roadside encroachments or use AI-based tools to complete the exercise. The commissioner also directed that structures for which the NMC’s notice period has expired be demolished immediately.The departments have been asked to coordinate their action instead of conducting separate drives. Police protection should be sought in advance wherever required, while NMC will provide JCBs and other equipment needed for demolition.Assistant commissioners have been directed to deploy adequate manpower at the zone level to expedite the encroachment removal drive.The task force has also focused on preventing fresh encroachments after demolition. Open plots cleared of encroachments should be secured immediately by constructing compound walls or installing bollards at vulnerable locations.Officials were specifically asked to ensure that cleared govt land does not become vulnerable to re-encroachment.The meeting was attended by additional commissioners Ankit, Muruganandham and Milind Meshram, DCP (Traffic) Aditya Mirkhelkar, MHADA chief officer Vijay Ingole, chief engineer Leena Upadhye, an NIT official, MSEDCL executive engineer Priti Phule and executive engineer Kamlesh Chavan, besides assistant commissioners of all NMC zones. PWD superintendent engineer Nita Thakre and resident deputy collector Anup Khande joined the meeting online.
