Aurangabad CIDCO

New Aurangabad city's localities are named as Neighbourhood-One (N-1), Neighbourhood-Two (N-2) through N-15. The New Aurangabad city (after completion of the project) has been handed over to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation. For the rapid industrialization of the city a new industrial area was planned skirting the township at Chikalthana village namely Chikalthana Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC).[2]

The main commercial district of the city is known as Town Center Connaught, and houses the offices of major banks and public sector companies. It also houses several offices of central and state governments. The surrounding area has existing and upcoming shopping malls & multiplexes such as Fame Adlabs, PVR Cinemas& Satyam Cinemas.

From the tourism point of view several hospitality majors are based in Cidco. Companies like the ITC Welcome group.[3] , The Ambassador Ajanta.[4] & the Tata group Taj Residency.[5] have their five-star properties here. In the field of education trusts such as Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College and the Maulana Azad Education Trust have set up vast campuses offering courses in diverse fields such as Engineering and Medicine.

Bombay High Court Aurangabad Bench, ITC Welcomgroup's The Rama International, Ajanta Ambassador & Cidco Town Center - Aerial view

This project is approximately eight times the size of those executed in Aurangabad city. CIDCO has conceived Waluj as a ring township, with the ring route acting as a spine for urban activities around the industrial center (MIDC),[2] with independent and inter-linked nagars spread all around the core with their strong links between workplaces and residences. The ring routes also facilitate an easy and economical transportation system to operate within the new city.

The development of Waluj is encouraged through the development of core units, boosting the socio-economic development of the urban fabric. The township, when fully developed, will cover an area of around 100 km².[6]

It covers an area of approx 16,397 ha., spread over 28 villages located beyond the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation limits. As per the Regional Plan of Aurangabad, the land use plan of the fringe area proposes about 8918 Ha. (54%) for Greens, 3517 Ha (21%) for residential, 3176 ha (19%) for Forests, 113 Ha. for industrial and the rest for other zones. All necessary statistical details to know the socio-economic profile of the area, village maps, details of NA permissions etc. are being collected to build up the data base. Analysis of the topology of development across various pockets of the fringe area is underway.[7]

Local representatives with the apprehension that CIDCO will acquire 100% land for the project made representation to State Govt. which had given time being stay for any work on the project. Subsequently, the stay has been vacated in July 2008 and CIDCO is on its way to preparing a Development Plan for the Fringe Area with minimum acquisition of land for infrastructure and social facilities.[7]