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Roads to nowhere: How East Nagpur’s Smart City dream lost direction

01 May 2026

that unsettling question now defines the sprawling area-based development (abd) zone in pardi, punapur, bharatwada and bhandewadi, a stretch of 1730 acres, where gleaming public buildings rise from vast stretches of silence, vacant land and disconnected roads that leads to nowhere. the newly built pardi police station, pardi fire station and skill development office -- developed by nagpur smart & sustainable city development corporation limited (nsscdcl) and recently handed over to the nagpur municipal corp
Roads to nowhere: How East Nagpur’s Smart City dream lost direction

State Government Rolls Out Facility, but for Whom?

Crores of rupees have been spent on building roads, a police station, a fire station, and civic infrastructure in the Nagpur Smart & Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited's Area-Based Development (ABD) zone, which spans 1730 acres. However, the question remains - who exactly will use these grand facilities today?

Disjointed Roads and Civic Infrastructure

  • Newly built roads in the ABD zone abruptly end into vacant land, muddy stretches, and undeveloped patches.
  • In some areas, incomplete roads open towards nullahs without proper barricading, making night travel risky.
  • The proposed connectivity from Bhandara Road through Pardi towards Kalamna Town remains incomplete in multiple stretches.

Despite the significant investment in infrastructure, continuous start-to-end road connectivity remains missing across several sections of the ABD zone.

Incomplete Road Construction

  • NSSCDCL officials admitted that roads were constructed only in stretches free from legal disputes or pending land acquisition cases to speed up tendering and execution.
  • Several stretches remain incomplete due to ongoing compensation and land-related disputes.

The irony of this situation is that in many parts of Nagpur, residents spend years demanding basic roads and civic amenities, whereas in the ABD zone, wide roads and modern public facilities stand in areas with sparse population and limited urban activity.

Questions Surrounding the Planning

  • Was the planning driven by actual urban demand, or by the urgency to complete projects?
  • If roads still fail to safely connect Bhandara Road to Kalamna through Pardi, can this truly be called "Smart City" development?

For now, East Nagpur's Smart City vision appears less like a thriving urban corridor and more like expensive infrastructure waiting for a population that has yet to arrive.

Who Are These Facilities Meant For?

The few residents who dare to venture into this area are left wondering - who exactly are these facilities meant for today?

As the Smart City ABD project was projected as East Nagpur's grand urban transformation, the question remains - has it truly delivered on its promises?