AshwiniBhide becomes BMC’s first woman commissioner

The 1995 batch IAS officer is all set to take over as the first woman chief of Mumbai’s civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

In a first, AshwiniBhide, who is a 1995 batch IAS officer, is all set to take over as the first woman commissioner of Mumbai’s civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). She will be taking over from incumbentBhushanGagrani, who retires today after a two-year term as the civic body’s chief.

AshwiniBhide to serve as the first woman BMC chief.

Ashwini was born in the Sangli district of Maharashtra. She is a 1995 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and achieved an All-India Rank of 9 in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) recruitment exam. She had topped among women candidates.Bhide holds a postgraduate degree in English literature and an MBA. The first assignment in her career as a bureaucrat was as an assistant collector of Kolhapur. She later helmed the ZilaParishads in Sindhudurg and Nagpur as CEO and was recognised for her work in water management and rural development. Later, she also worked as the Deputy Secretary to the Governor before her stint as Additional Metropolitan Commissioner with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked as BMC’s Additional Commissioner, where her work in contact teaching and health system management earned praise.

AshwiniBhide, also known as Mumbai’s ‘Metro Woman.’

Between 2015 and 2020, she served as Managing Director of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited, during which she played a crucial role in implementing the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ line. Bhide had strongly defended the construction of the Metro car shed in Aarey, considered the Maximum City’s green lung. She is currently serving as Additional Chief Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office and is known as a trusted bureaucrat of Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis.

An agreement on Bhide’s appointment was reached during a meeting between Fadnavis and Shinde at the Chief Minister’s Varsha bungalow.