- RS.

450 CRORE IMAGE MAKEOVER

PLAN FOR SHIRDI -
13th Jan`2011

The Maharashtra Govt is all set to totally change the face of

Shirdi & make it into a world class Pilgrimage plus Tourist Spot,
for which, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation
(MSRDC) has revived its six-year-old Shirdi development plan
and is planning to construct a 3-5 Star Hotel, a Promenade,
Skywalks and Parking lots in the city which attracts
more than 8 lakh pilgrims on a day on any auspicious occasion.

The Shirdi Sai Temple Trust manages the 5-6 acres of land
surrounding the place of worship.
Now, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation
(MSRDC) will undertake a massive makeover within a 3 km
circumference around the Temple land.

MSRDC had floated Rs.450-crore infrastructure development

plan for Shirdi in 2005, which had been lying dormant for 6
years. MSRDC, however, has now called for Expression of
Interest (EOI) from various parties and held a meeting with
infrastructure and real estate players to kick-start the
programme. The Project will be build on a BOT (Build Operate
Transfer) model where the operator creates
the infrastructure and returns the project back to the
government after recovering his cost.

MSRDC will be awarding a contract with the condition that the

town has to be developed along the lines of the Vatican City.
Tenders will be published in March`2011.
The Shirdi Sai Baba Sansthan has studied the Traffic & Crowd
management model of 10 Indian Pilgrimages
and 3 International Pilgrimages - Jerusalem, Mecca & the Vatican
City. It finally decided to go ahead with the Vatican city based
model for Shirdi.
 Under this plan, the MSRDC will:
a) Start a three or five star hotel and has already sought land from
the Shree Shirdi Sai Sansthan.
b) The MSRDC is also planning a four-lane 10km ring road, which will
go along the township.
c) Widening of roads in Shirdi as the township with a population of
60,000 inhabitants
sees more then 1 lakh people coming in on an average day.
d) Constructing a 1,200-metre Skywalk to the Main Temple complex,
which will have three outlets leading to the temple with Lifts and
Escalators.
e) It will also include a 1.5km promenade on the Ahmednagar-
Manmad road.
f) The promenade will provide facilities such as sanitation, seating
arrangements for the devotees.
g) Plans to have multi-storeyed car parking of seven to 11 floors that
can house 600 vehicles.
h) There are also plans to build a hotel with at least 200 rooms for
devotees.

The plots for development are being provided by the Shirdi Temple
Trust and the officials claim that once the bidder is finalised, they
project will be completed in 30 months.

The Entire Project will be completed in Three Phases within 3-

4yrs time.
The 1st Phase will cost Rs.100 crore for the entire Road Development
in & around Shirdi. A Ring-Road will be build around Shirdi so that
those who want to by-pass Shirdi can do so from Out-n-Out itself
without entering Shirdi Town thus reducing the Traffic congestion in
Shirdi.

The 2nd Phase will look after the Traffic & Crowd Management plus
the Commercial Use of Land for which a total of 5 plots have been
identified & will be purchased by the Shirdi SaiBaba Sansthan for
MSRDC who will develop it under B.O.T & Public-Private Participation.
A Multi-level Parking to accommodate thousands of Cars/Buses will be
made.
 A big building " Bhakt-Niwas' & Comercial Area will be made for
Boarding/Lodging of Devotees and for Commercial use also.
Cars/Buses etc will come straight into this Multi-level Parking and
the Devotees will directly go to the Bhakt-Niwas from here.
There is going to be Sky-Walks in Shirdi connecting the "Bhakt-
Niwas" directly to the 3 Entry/Exit points of Baba`s Samadhi
Temple. These Sky-Walks will have Lift’s & Escalators too for the
benefit of the Aged/Handicapped People.
Thus, there will be less number of people on the road going to & fro
the Samadhi Temple. In short Shirdi will have all the facilities for a
world class tourist Spot.

___

The 3rd Phase will be building a Green Zone with a Amphi-

theatre, Promenades, Benches etc
to make Shirdi a Tourist spot alongside an Pilgrimage for which 8
plots have been identified & will be purchased by the Shirdi Sai
Baba Sansthan for MSRDC who will develop it under B.O.T & Public-
Private Participation.
"mOst peOple are awaiting Virtual
Reality;
I'm awaiting VirtuOus Reality !"...Eli
Khamarov

virtuality killed the cAt - rOhit beHaL