Haryana to follow War Room model for driving projects after Devendra Fadnavis

MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' unique initiative the War Room has found an admirer in Haryana, with the northern state sending in a bunch of officials to study the model and replicate it back home.

Fadnavis started the War Room after he became chief minister last year. The War Room comprises a team drawn from the private and government sectors, whose main task is to make sure that crucial infrastructure and other projects in the state do not get stuck.

Last week, a team of top Haryana officials flew down to Maharashtra to see for themselves how the War Room operated: they were in Mumbai for two days, interacting with officials, trying to understand the nuances and finer points of how project clearances were expedited.

The three-member team comprising Amit Arya, media advisor to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar; Samvartak Singh Khangwal, joint secretary, public relations; and IT consultant Dhruv Majumdar, went back impressed with what they saw.

"We have prepared a report and submitted it to the chief minister, it is at a very preliminary stage," said Arya.

He said that they have a system in place for fast tracking projects that Khattar is pitching for. "We want to improve accountability , remove bottlenecks... we would like to see how files are being tracked and at which stage departments they are getting stuck. Like the Maharashtra War Room, we want to bring in professionals from fields such as IIT to monitor the projects," said Arya.

As ET had reported earlier, Fadnavis' War Room not only tracks projects but also pushes for their faster implementation. The War Room operations are supervised by principal secretary to the CM, Pravin Pardeshi, and OSD to Fadnavis, Kaustubh Dhavse.

They personally look at projects, call up bureaucrats and other officials for faster clearances, and iron out legal and technical glitches. Fadnavis himself keeps tabs on various projects, and even uses a specially configured app to track their progress.

According to Maharashtra government officials, the Haryana team has now sought their help to ensure that a similar system is put in place there as soon as possible.

Some of the projects that have benefitted from the War Room is the Mumbai Transharbour-Link Road, the Metro venture and Mumbai's coastal road project. The environmental and other clearances, which typically take years, have been obtained much quicker.