Hindustan Times ·
Pune mayor, two civic officials to attend Japan conference
The delegation will include additional municipal commissioner Prajit Nair and city engineer Aniruddha Pawaskar. The PMC standing committee approved the visit on Wednesday
Pune mayor Manjusha Nagpure, along with two senior Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials, will visit Okayama, Japan, from September 26 to October 4 to attend a conference marking 20 years of the friendship and cooperation agreement between Pune and Okayama, officials said.
The delegation will include additional municipal commissioner Prajit Nair and city engineer Aniruddha Pawaskar. The PMC standing committee approved the visit on Wednesday, chairman Shrinath Bhimale said.
The civic body is expected to spend around ₹6 lakh on the two officials, or ₹3 lakh each, covering air travel, accommodation and food.
“The standing committee has approved the visit as part of the 20th anniversary of the Pune-Okayama friendship and cooperation agreement,” Bhimale said.
The PMC will meet the expenditure from its 2026-27 allocation under ‘various committees, commissions and tours’, with ₹10 lakh available. The PMC and the Okayama Prefectural Government signed the agreement on January 19, 2006.
During the visit, the delegation will meet representatives of the Okayama Prefectural Government, local administration, industry and educational institutions to discuss cooperation in urban governance, education, healthcare, environment, technology, tourism and cultural exchange.
An Okayama delegation visited the PMC in January. The 15-member delegation, which included representatives of the Okayama Chamber of Commerce, was led by Kenichi Shimpo, speaker of the Okayama Assembly, and former assembly speaker Hiroyuki Ogura. The two sides discussed cooperation in education, capacity building, training, urban governance, healthcare, public services, technology and human resource development, including moving towards concrete projects.
The Pune-Okayama Friendship Garden, developed in the Japanese style and named after Marathi litterateur Pu La Deshpande, is another symbol of the ties between the two regions.