Veteran bureaucrat Radheshyam Mopalwar’s past performance and service record is enough to reaffirm the belief that the 1995 batch IAS officer has multifaceted talent. Handling any pressure resulting from multitasking with a calm temperament is Mopalwar’s forte. He has proved his mettle at every level of projects from planning, formulating strategies, distribution of works, coordination, execution, implementation, leading the team of experts to effective monitoring. Mopalwar ruled the roost in the war room by virtue of his multifaceted talent. His dynamic role at every stage of a project ensured speedy execution of the assignment. Review system that Mopalwar has been working on has been tremendous, with the result that the entire team of experts involved in any project remains motivated till the last minute of the project. 

During interviews and press interactions, Mopalwar has himself on many occasions revealed these personality traits that he has. When once asked about his priorities as War Room DG by an English daily, Mopalwar had said that he would be reviewing major infrastructure projects absolutely regularly, fortnightly and monthly. He also talked about his focus on strategy making and implementation parts of the project. This shows that Mopalwar always believes in developing a robust review system of the projects, with focus on expediting the implementation thereof.

The manner in which the projects are being executed and reviewed today at War Room level bears testimony to what Mopalwar claimed. There are a large number of infrastructure projects including bullet train, dedicated corridor, Baroda Mumbai Expressway, Samruddhi Marg, Pune ring road, multimodal corridor, Jalna Nanded expressway, Konkan expressway. These projects are regularly reviewed by Mopalwar and inputs and updates are being shared with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Not only this, Mopalwar shares his views and suggestions with the team of officers and experts on all these projects so as to complete them in a time-bound manner.

In fact, the state government is keen to see the maximum number of projects being completed on time. Mopalwar told a newspaper that the Chief Minister has instructed to connect each district by almost grid access control expressway that will go up to 5,000 km in years to come. According to Mopalwar, “a long-term infrastructure vision is being articulated. It will be set into motion in such a way that all the aspects will be on auto pilot.” Bringing all aspects of the project on auto pilot mode is considered to be a visionary idea which is attributed to Mopalwar.

What is also worth mentioning is that several projects are such where the state has partnership with the Central government. For example, Versova Virar link which the Centre is partnering with Maharashtra. Mopalwar being an officer having strong communication and persuasive skills coordinates with his counterparts in the central government. He has developed a wide network between Maharashtra and New Delhi based Urban Development Ministry and Prime Minister Office to ensure that the projects being done in partnership do not get hindered. He makes the most of every single meeting with officers concerned to remove bottlenecks if any in the joint project of Maharashtra and the Government of India. Officials working with Mopalwar have shared their experience with media persons, saying that the veteran bureaucrat has superb convincing power. He always has clarity of every single point relating to the project in discussion.

Mopalwar’s supervisory role in major projects such as the proposed Pune-Nashik industrial corridor project has been quite effective. In fact, this is the project being carried out by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). Mopalwar has been VC and MS of MSRDC in the past. He has extraordinary command of every single working of the agency. Therefore, Mopalwar is guiding the agency yet again on this project as well. As MSRDC MD, Mopalwar had led the Mumbai Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg project which is complete by 80 per cent now. The proposed six-lane access-controlled 180-km-long Pune Nashik expressway will be built at the cost of over Rs 10,000 crore. Mopalwar’s inputs are considered quite important as it will pass through rural Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik districts. The rural area land acquisition exercise could not be completed without Mopalwar’s guidance, the Maharashtra watchers believe. It is not just Expressways but the metro projects, irrigation projects are also being reviewed by the war room with Mopalwar the key man there. His networking and coordination skills are helping the government getting multiple clearances which are needed for the development projects.

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