Ashwini Bhide is an

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

(IAS) officer, predominantly known for her work on the Aqua Line or popularly known as Line 3 of the

Mumbai Metro The Mumbai Metro is a rapid transit (MRT) system serving the city of Mumbai and the wider Mumbai Metropolitan Region in Maharashtra, India.Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority is responsible authority for maintaining the metro system ...

. She served as Managing Director of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL), which is a joint venture of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

and

Government of Maharashtra The Government of Maharashtra is the state governing authority for the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a democratically elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the Vidhan Sabha for a five-year term. Maharashtra has a Maharashtra Legisla ...

since its inception, i.e. 2015 until 2020. In January 2020, she along with 20 others IAS officers from Maharashtra state were transferred by the newly formed

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

led by

Uddhav Thackeray Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (Marathi pronunciation: d̪ʱːəʋ ʈʰaːkɾeː born 27 July 1960) is an Indian politician who served as the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2019 to 2022. He was also the president of Shiv Sena prior to ...

. Prior to the new government coming in force,

Aaditya Thackeray Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray (born 13 June 1990) is an Indian Politician who served as a Cabinet Minister of Higher Education, Cabinet Minister of Tourism and Environment for the Government of Maharashtra. He is also an MLA of Maharashtra Legislat ...

, whose party

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena ( IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a right-wing to far-right Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bom ...

was a member of the earlier Devendra Fadnavis-led government in the state, had demanded the transfer of Bhide citing differences in interest on construction of metro car shed at Aarey Milk Colony.

Career

Bhide started her career as the assistant collector of the Kolhapur district from 1997 to 1999. Following this, she was posted as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Sindhudurg district from 1999 to 2000 following which she was transferred to the Nagpur district. Bhide was appointed the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Nagpur Zilla Parishad between 2000 and 2003 where she built 434 dams across 310 villages at a cost of ₹300,000 to bring 7,000 hectares of land under irrigation. Between 2004 and 2008, she was appointed as deputy secretary to the Governor of Maharashtra following which she was appointed as Additional Metropolitan Commissioner at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). She also served as School Education and Sports Secretary and was instrumental in bringing the Systematic Administrative Reforms for Achieving Learning by Students (SARAL) database online. During her tenure at the MMRDA, she was seen as the driving force for several big ticket projects including the Eastern Freeway,

Sahar Elevated Access Road The Sahar Elevated Access Road, abbreviated to SEAR, is a dedicated, elevated, express access road in Mumbai that connects the Western Express Highway (WEH) near Hanuman Nagar junction in Vile Parle, with the forecourts of Terminal T2 of the C ...

Mithi river The Mithi River (Pronunciation: iʈʰiː is a river on Salsette Island, the island of the city of Mumbai, India. It is a confluence of tail-water discharges of the Powai and Vihar lakes. The river is seasonal and rises during the monsoons. ...

cleanup which involved rehabilitation of over 4000 affected projected affected people, the

Mumbai Monorail MMRDA Mumbai Monorail is an monorail system in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, built as part of a major expansion of public transport in Mumbai, public transport in the city. The project was implemented and is currently operated by the ...

and the first line of the

. Her work in the rehabilitation of 5,000 people across the city for various infrastructure projects has been considered a case study. In March 2020, Bhide, who was till then not assigned a role post her exit from the MMRC, was deputed to the

Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC; IAST: ), also known as the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra. It is India's richest municipal corporation. The BMC ...

(MCGM) taskforce as an Additional Municipal Commissioner to combat the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic in Maharashtra The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Indian state of Maharashtra was confirmed on 9 March 2020. The largest single day spike (68,631 cases), highest peak in all of India was reported on 18 April 2021. Maharashtra is a hotspot that a ...

. Bhide has been tasked with overseeing the Corporation's contact tracing efforts as well as to monitor the control room and provide assistance to hospitals.

Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation

Bhide was appointed as the managing director of MMRC in 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhide, Ashwini Indian Administrative Service officers 1970 births COVID-19 pandemic in India Living people