MUMBAI: Ashwini Bhide who is managing director of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL), will be the new principal secretary to CM Devendra Fadnavis. An IAS officer of the 1995 batch, Bhide will replace senior IPS officer Brijesh Singh.
In a career spanning over 30 years, Bhide has held several key positions. Besides Bhide, the chief minister’s office (CMO) has two more bureaucrats. Additional chief secretary Vikas Kharge, who was with former CM Eknath Shinde, has been asked to continue–he remains the seniormost among bureaucrats in the CMO–and Shikar Par desi, who was earlier secretary to Fadnavis when he was deputy CM. Besides being principal secretary to the CM, Bhide will continue to lead the MMRCL. Singh will continue to hold the post of Director General Information and Public Relations.
In the corridors of power, Bhide is recognised as being among trusted bureaucrats in Fadnavis’s circle in his first term as CM. She has been associated with MMRCL for a prolonged period, from January 5, 2015, to January 23, 2020, and again from June 13, 2022 to December 13, 2024.
In between, she was additional municipal commissioner from May 9, 2020 to March 19, 2024. During that period, she also held additional charge as MD, MMRCL. During the tenure of Uddhav Thackeray as CM, she was among the first bureaucrats to be sidelined. She was put on compulsory waiting from January 23, 2020, to May 8, 2020 and held no charge.
Fadnavis had brought her into his office in his first term to oversee infrastructure projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore, which were in different stages of completion. In a recent meeting with bureaucrats, Fadnavis asked them to come out with a 100-day action plan and ensure timebound implementation of flagship programs initiated by the NDA and the Mahayuti state govt.
