Monday 7 November 2011

Pimpri-Chinchwad —a Metropolis in the Making

Pimpri- Chinchwad has rapidly shaken off its image of being a predominantly industrial township, a mere adjunct to Pune, and now bids fair to becoming recognized as a fully developed city in its own right.
The metamorphosis has not been easy. Several decades of apathy, a laissez-faire attitude and inertia to change had to be overcome. And overcome, it did, thanks to several efficient town planners and administrators at both, the Pimpri-Chinchwad New Township Authority (PCNTDA) and the Pimpri- Chinchwad  Municipal Corporation ( PCMC ), backed to the hilt by the Government of Maharashtra.
Swept aside have been the narrow, potholed roads choked with smoke belching trucks and buses, shanty towns, open drains and malodorous swamps, breeding grounds for a host of diseases that are typical of most industrial townships. They have been replaced by broad, multi-lane paved roads, impressive flyovers, well maintained public parks, ample potable water storage and supply network and an effective drainage system.
If one were to compare Pimpri-Chinchwad with Pune, some of the statistics are quite astonishing. Pimpri-Chinchwad, with an area of 178 sq. km. has 630 km of roads, over 100 public gardens and only 69 designated slums, as compared to Pune which, in an  area of 244 sq.km. has 650 km of roads, 79 public gardens and 560 slums!
The results of the impressive infrastructure development speak for themselves. Where there were only a handful of large Indian manufacturing companies like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Finolex, Garware and a few British, Swedish and German multi-nationals, there is now a proliferation of globally renowned IT companies,  and several   leading Indian Engineering and consumer durable manufacturing  companies… if one were to consider Chakan, which, though it lies outside the ambit of PCMC  is accessible through and is largely serviced by PCMC, then one would add the names of some of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers!
Scores of well designed housing complexes, offering a wide range of housing options  from modest single bedroom flats to palatial bungalows dot the skyline from Baner to Chikhali; PCMC is home to several fine campuses offering graduate and post-graduate education in virtually every discipline; not to be left behind are banks and financial institutions and high end health care units, as well as retail and entertainment malls.
The planned 240 acre International Exhibition & Convention Centre along the Pune-Nashik Highway is perhaps the finest signpost to this transformation of Pimpri-Chinchwad— truly a Metropolis in the Making.

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