Aurangabad CIDCO
Aurangabad CIDCO is a planned city in Maharashtra built by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) starting in the 1970s, following efforts by politician Rafiq Zakaria to plan a new Aurangabad. The project, known as New Aurangabad, became CIDCO’s second major success after Navi Mumbai and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She noted that the plans looked good on paper and later visited the project, planting a tree that CIDCO maintains.
New Aurangabad is divided into neighbourhoods named N-1 to N-15 and was handed over to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation after completion. To speed up industrial growth, CIDCO created a new industrial area at Chikalthana (MIDC). The city’s main commercial hub is Town Center Connaught, which hosts banks, government offices, and various malls and cinemas.
High-end hospitality and education are prominent, with five-star hotels from groups like ITC Welcome, Ambassador Ajanta, and Taj Residency (Tata) and institutions such as Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College and Maulana Azad Education Trust offering engineering and medical courses.
CIDCO has planned Waluj Mahanagar, a large industrial-residential township about 12 km southwest of the city. It is designed as a ring township around the MIDC area and is planned to cover about 100 square kilometers, connecting workplaces and homes efficiently.
The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation area is rapidly growing, with an estimated population around 1.7 million. In 2006, the Maharashtra government appointed CIDCO as Special Planning Authority for the fringe area beyond the municipal limits, covering about 16,397 hectares across 28 villages. The fringe area land-use plan reserves roughly 54% for greens, 21% for residential use, 19% for forests, and a small portion for industrial and other zones. In 2008, a temporary stay on development was lifted, and CIDCO began preparing a development plan for the fringe area with minimal land acquisition.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:20 (CET).