Calling the Town Planning Department "hopeless" and "good for nothing", Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said an outside agency should be hired to chalk out a development plan for Pune.

Looking at the current pace of development of the city, a new vision was necessary, he said.

Incidentally, the state Town Planning Department comes under the Urban Development ministry, a portfolio held by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis himself.

"The Town Planning Department is a hopeless department... the department is good for nothing...There is a need to employ agencies like Singapore Planning Authority to chalk out a better development plan for the city.

"If we rely on Town Planning Department, the plan will never materialise as I haven't seen such a hopeless organisation in my life," the BJP leader said, speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of a flyover here.

"If you decide to employ an outside agency to chalk out the development plan, I am sure the chief minister will give his approval," he said.