Kunal Kumar, Municipal Commissioner, PMC and Director, PSCDCL
An IAS officer of the 1999 batch, Kunal Kumar is currently municipal commissioner, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), a position he has held since August 2014. He is also serving as director, Pune Smart City Municipal Corporation Limited (PSCDCL).
Under the Smart Cities Mission, Pune is planning to use ICT solutions to improve the reliability, availability and aesthetics of buses and bus stops, and develop an Intelligent Pune Traffic System to reduce congestion on the roads. Further, the city will use a suite of ICT solutions to synchronise signals, improve parking facilities and obtain real-time traffic analysis. In order to ensure 24×7 water availability, the city administration plans to use smart metering for equitable distribution, conduct customer survey on a GIS platform and facilitate grievance redressal and bill payment online and through a mobile application.
Kumar has incorporated several innovative concepts and ideas in the Smart Cities Mission vision document for Pune city. These included public participation to crowd-source ideas through the Maza Swapna, Smart Pune contest, where citizens could propose smart solutions to key issues facing them.
Kumar has presented various papers on e-governance that have won him numerous accolades. He also won the national award for the best e-governed district for Jalgaon, and received a certificate of appreciation for being a finalist in the Manthan Award 2009. (This is an annual award for South Asia given in recognition of exceptional digital content creation.) Besides, he has received the award for excellence in Aadhaar governance during his stint as district collector, Aurangabad. Kumar believes his key strengths are his focused, passionate, energetic and result-oriented approach as well as his creative amd analytic bent of mind. “My focus on quality and timeliness has been a key ingredient in the success of several projects throughout my years of service.”
After graduating as an electrical engineer from IIT Roorkee, he obtained a postgraduate degree in public management from the National University of Singapore and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He has served the Maharashtra government since 1999 and has worked across various state departments. In the past, he has also worked with Nagpur Municipal Corporation as additional municipal commissioner, and the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation as commissioner.
Kumar enjoys travelling and reading, and follows sports across the world.
