Each time I descend on Pune, I imagine and dream things. That I am playing tourist in a city of rivers. There are nice walks by the water. There are parks and nice restaurants right on the river. There are beautiful and numerous bridges throughout the city. And the rivers have clean silvery water flowing through them.
But after I arrive, I get to see plastic bags and other colorful things floating in those mostly muddy waters. I see the rivers stagnat and full of weeds at a few locations. I see some parks, but most not so well maintained or attractive. And I haven’t yet spotted any worthy walks or jogging tracks near the flowing waters. Talking of the bridges, while a few of them are in nice and functional shape, I don’t seen any that can be called beautiful and worthy of morning or evening strolls.
I know Pune will be a beautiful city one day, whenever the residents realize the potential these rivers have. Pune has this slight advantage over Bangalore that it can offer real nice sourroundings to live in. Hills all around the place, some close enough to develop into daily evening destinations. Mula and Mutha, the rivers I just mentioned. And then, so many historic places, forts and temples nearby.
Not that Bengalooru is short on destinations, but those are arguably a bit farther than in Pune. I mean you have to drive a couple of hours to hit the hills and spots here. And the city of gardens is losing its greenery at a rapid pace. Moreover, getting to the gardens and lakes – that this city has managed to save – is always an ordeal.
But then I think, what good is Pune’s potential? What are the chances that its residents will wake up and turn their city into a great place that it can be? I don’t know. Ask a Punekar. I am only a regular visitor and hopeful tourist. Besides, I live in a city that held similar potential not so long ago!
Update: An older Pune vs Bangalore post here.
/India/Bangalore/things 
Bangalore was the first city to develop so mistakes were made.Pune should learn from this example
What? Are you asking Indians to learn from their mistakes? It will never happen. We take pride in our herd mentality. We are good at repeating someone else’s mistake. It does not matter if the unplanned growth is turning the very city into a hellhole. We are even messing with Chandigarh which is the only planned city in modern India.
When I was growing up in Bengalooru in the ’80s, the people and the press talked endlessly about how fast the city was growing. People even took pride in that!! There was no discussion about planning for the future. Now that it has become a hellhole, all people do is whine about the problems, congestion, soaring costs, crime rate….and of course lack of any planning.
“Bangalore was the first city to develop ”
Really?
“All people do is whine”
Yeah.. thats true :). Here’s some more:
One Similarity between Bangalore and Pune. Good Weather.
One Difference: Unlike the garb of cosmopoliton city that Bangalore wears – it really is not. Its an unwelcoming closed city. In this regard even Hyderabad scores way above!.
Enjoy Maadi.
ha ha ha Hyderabad greets with demands for telengana.its no where around cosmopolitan city bangalore.
Do Indians learn from theri mistakes? In some cases, the answer sadly is NO. But in certain other cases, good sense has been shown.
MUDA(Mysore Urban Development Authority) has built a ring road around the city BEFORE traffic problems arose and buidlings caused the land price to shoot up. This avoided all the problems that the BDA faced when it tried to construct the ring road in Blore. In addition, this may prevent further traffic problems in Mysore.
Chennai has built an IT corridor with wide roads connecting to the rest of the city.
I hope there are other instances of good planning. Unfortunately, there are also a number of cases of BAD planning
Are you comparing Pune and Banglore? Then you are totally wrong. Both cities (and all cosmopolitian cities in India except Chandigadh) are by and large similar. You will see carbage, dirty roads and badly maintained gardens. Even Bangaloru is said to be Hightech city, it is the same when talking about cleanliness.
BTW Have you taken these picture while traveling in plane? Do they allowed to take shoots?
Pune, Bangalore… With respect to traffic mgt –
just building infrastructure does not guarantee smoother traffic flow – It is required to have an better management system. Traffic engineering is still not viewed as important; that it remains as a part of overwhelmed, probably under motivated municipal corporations says it all. Citizen groups are taking an active role – but
they require support to get the initiative flowing – particularly from the govt folks –
http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/aug/eco-workzone.htm#continue
Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata , Chennai …. whats the difference ?
Every city is the same. I am from Pune, and believe me nowadays the only crap that goes on is about the BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit). I don’t see any value in it. I’m sure thats the case anywhere in India. The roads are bad … the traffic is horrible … the pollution is bad … basically its all screwed up. In pune during peak hours … you require atleast 1 hr to reach from point A to B (irrespective if point A and B are just 5 kms apart). Again I believe the case is the same in many cities in india.
All the government does in Pune is harps on stuff like new software companies moving in, lots of motor companies moving in (VW, GM, Bajaj, Tata, JCB, Fiat,etc). Do they ever talk about infrastructure. I seriously believe that unless we plan effectively, the infrastructure is going to totally crumble in another 5 years (with JNURM or no JNURM)
As for the hills and rivers in Pune, well thats the only saving grace of this city. The river is a big sewer and it stinks. The hills are the only place remaining … and the damn government wants to even ruin it by building link roads& tunnels through hills.
Allo The point I was trying to make was about the potential some cities have or had, and how we are killing it all.
I still dream though, and think it is possible to create beautiful living spaces in still-not-metro cities like Pune and Bengalooru.
Vijay Citizen groups should take an active role not by ‘doing’ things themselves, they (or rather we) should spend our energies to make ‘them’ do the job they are supposed to do.
George, one thing you and me share is hope and optimism. And I bet that is justified. Its like how if we see our children everyday, we never feel how much they have grown. But if you see some kids after a gap of 3-4 years, you go – “wow, you are so big and tall now” :).
Coolguy I disagree. Pune may not be as cosmopolitan as Bangalore, but is definitely not very unwelcoming.
Huchha Not that we don’t learn, it is just that we act only when the water gets neck deep. That is our culture – “a stitch only just in time” – and tests everyone’s patience!
Allo, if you try to learn what BRTS is about, then perhaps you might think differently. It’s about sustainable transport. It’s trying to break the mess urban cities have gotten themselves into by either promoting private vehicle usage/ not being pro-active in establishing a user friendly public transport system. Population growth in a city with growing white collar job positions is a given. Are you suggesting that the roads and flyovers should be built endlessly? You will end up in a mess like some of the cities have. to see where this kind of ‘growth’ leads, take a look at http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/search?label=humour. search for ‘Rosanov Street’ on that page. You end up having to travel several kms. just to take a left turn onto an adjacent street. On the other hand, take a look at cities like Bangkok, Bogota etc who have opted for BRTS and have cleaned up their cities of the very ills that you mention.
Errrr, Shital, fly-over is a bad word to use on this blog. Search flyover here, you will find posts and comment saying no to them.
I am with you – our crowded cities need sustainable public transport systems for daily commute use. We don’t want to go the America way – no car, no life.
But BRTS or not, roads do need to be built. Can’t have cities with no car no buses no trucks.
bangalore is very cool compare to other city having many heavy and IT industry in it. bangalore is having good infrastructural hopes comin days like metro rail, mono rail , international air port ,long flayovers and many underpasses throught the city . Bangalore is having still lot of clean and safe to stay in BANGALORE . IN EDUCATION FIELD BANGALORE IS SO FORWARD COMARE TO ANY OTHER CITY IN WHOLE INDIA . IAM FROM PUNE (PIMPRI).BUT I LIKE STAYING IN BANGALORE.
hello sir,
i m studying architecture ,in our course my dissertation topic is changing face of pune on the basis all u mentioned.even hav to casestudy of bangelore for this purpose . can you plz help me for my topic.
hey, with all that you say, i think pune can be modernised and that will be so…only problem puneri’s are having is lack of management. Nobody here is very much intrested in the development..but i suppose it will be history in few days.
Hey guy, Pune mind numbing city, transportation wise this is the only worst city I have never seen in my life. No development in the city. There is no link between IT parks and the city. Railway station is too dirty. No proper bus stand. Buses start to move before we get in into it. No proper nameplate for buses. Bangalore is too cool and it is the Heaven. Compare the above mentioned situations of Pune with Bangalore. In addition to this, Pune is No.1 city for air pollution. Everywhere smoke. Bangalore always rocks! :)
hello i dont accept johns statement that bangalore is top in education.who told u like that?in education hyderbad is no1.because hyd is home for IIT,BITS,USAs TOP10 GEORGIA SETTING UP ITS CAMPUS IN HYDERABAD,INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS so on.also education here is very standardi dont think so in karnataka.
yeah we know osmania university.very famous for its campus.student burning himself.
Looks like according to radhakrishna, Hyderabad is no. 1 in everything! New info guys! May be an agent of Andhra government!
This is a discussion forum about Pune and Bangalore. Noone here is interested in Hyderabad here. It’s sheer cheapness to simply tell something is no.1 and something is not. We are not giving competition here, it’s not a seminar or a classroom. It’s a request to the people not to compare. When you don’t like something, state the reason why. You can’t say something is bad because this is not there or that’s not there. Good education does not come from concrete buildings, it may also be achieved from a small school in a village. It’s upto the student – the way he takes his education.
I wonder if there are 2 Hyderabads in India. One that I visit every few weeks and one that Radhakrishna lives in! :) Have seen his other responses on another blog.
see kmrjt u failed in u r discussion so get lost bye
radhakrishna,
stop accusing people like that. Your arguments in all the blogs are baseless and feels like forced imposition. We all understand that you’re not a patriot, you’re a Hyderabad patriot. Please find a website on Hyderabad to discuss your ideas and cease to blog and comment in this Bangalore webpage. We are here to discuss the pros and cons of Bangalore, not to compare it with any other city. And we are definitely not here to make illogical discussions. I hope you get that straight. Stop blogging here.
You’re right Abhishek. However I personally feel its of no use telling anything good to such jugheads. These people have their own mis perceptions and believe in them more than facts. Let’s forget about them.
sorry all i am just kidding anywhere if india develops its enough and again sorry to everyone
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Hellllllloooooo
pune is always pune
Pune Doesnt Require Certificates For That from u people
Pune is what ask the experts
yeah pune got all the certificates from experts like worst city,air polluting city etc.
Any of you seen the road infrastructure in Pune recently? I was impressed. I am not from Pune, but I must say, the municipal corporation has really turned the road infrastructure around. I would say it rivals Delhi in the quality of the roads – good construction, well marked, and well maintained. Based on the comments above, I was looking for potholes when I visited recently, and there were none!
hey i agree with the above guy.. roads in pune have improved million times.. i moved put of pune in august 2008.. since then have been to numerous cities across India… bangalore, chennai, delhi, mumbai, etc and then finally been to pune last month.. was impressed with the roads..to he honest shocked to see such good roads.. the PMC has really worked on the infrastructure.. all thanks to the CYG 2008 i guess..
Guys let me tell u the atual facts btwn pune. I have lived in both the cities. 1.b’lore crowded traffic, pune following it 2. pune- no traffic sense, b’lore – defenitley yes since no tries to tailgate the signal if he does hez gonna die. pune- b4 it goes green people start moving. people in pune always spitting wherever they find a space, pune people always speaks marathi and egoistic, in some b’lore to some extent on this. b’lore- has beautiful parks in every locality n well maintained. pune- u cnat compare a single park. educationwise – both same, but bore apart frm traffic its a butiful city. In pune pimpi is good.
I am maharashtrian and just shifted to pune from Bangalore. I would like to mention some major difference between these two cities. Initially i was very happy by seeing my own people and own state. But this happiness doesn’t last for long time.
1) Airport is not like a airport it seems its bus stop.
2) Lot of non hygienic food/juice/tea stalls and too much costly.
3) Rent is quite high than Bangalore.
4) Climate is hot than Bangalore.
5) Lot of illegal land capturing
6) Worst Traffic
7) Transportation problem. No AC buses and even regular buses are very less.
8) No Private CAB like Meru/City Taxi.
9) Auto wala always asks for overcharge.
10) Fruits and Vegetables much more costly even though it grows on punekars own land.
11) Less Tress.
12) Roads condition is little bit good but still need to improve in some places.
Current Rates in pune
PN- Grapes – 60 KG – BNG – 40 KG
PN- sweet Lemon – 60 Kg – BNG-20 KG
PN-Fruit juice – 30RS – BNG- 12 RS
if somebody like me who is a home seek and deciding to shift to Pune from Bangalore think before. But still its my place and i will live here forever. I and all our punekar will try to make this city as good as our people over here.
the most imp thing abt pune-no1 mentioned-plz note dis-the oxford of the east-its pune,,,a few days ago,when all asian technical universities was ranked among each other,pune university came on 6th or 7th place,among 2 IITs,but there was no place for either banglore univ nor VTU in top 10 :) \m/ pune is better than bangalore in many reasons–
1)u can see the variations in this city,,bangalore is all same everywher u will feel that u r at the same place
2)puneites are smarter than bangalorian in communication,helpful too,
3)it is connected to bombay,the business capital,so it is much influnced by the fashin,trend,latest urban works,n its fine than bangalore
4)a very few people know that its the city having largest number of IT parks,though bangalore is the IT capital,but pune has around 83 IT parks
5)funny fact-u can find many mercedese benz buses in pune,rarely found in bangalore :P
6)pune beauties are better than bangalore southian crowd(that sucks)bangalore is what all bcoz of outsiders
7)notice this-pune is going to be the 2nd city after kolkata,where water transportation,bus transportation,local train transportation,n metro transportation will b availbl in a few yrs :)
8)infosys buildin,hsbc buildin comes in top ranking of amazing buildings in india :)
9)if u have less IQ u can easily cheated by bangalore auto service,but its less in pune
10)wiether never matters,bombay is very hot,but nobody wants to skip roaming whole day..so quittin talkin abt weather
11)pune is going to be called as the mall capital of india
12)the largest mall of designing is in pune-ishanya-www.ishanya.com ul b amazed
13)u can fly anytime to lonawakla-khandala at night,trust me,go around 12 am at night,just visit the lions point,its better than any discotheque or lounge in india,its ammmazin,bmw,merc,porshe,open jeeps,guyz n galz,n ewwwwrythng \m/
14)yaa,punes city infrastrucutre is a bit low,because its a very old city,bangalore is planned thats y its well infrastructured,but pune has larger hisstorical records
15)some one can say this bad,someone can say dis wow,lol,pune is called as the drug capital of india,u can find the finest quality of bs and merijuana in pune
16)an amazing city is equipped in pune-magarpatta-just googled this,it has its own malls,its own hospitals,multiplexes n ewrythn i city has
17)just at a few dist frm main city.its LAVASA ,amazin,a city setup on water,,u can njoy live muzic shows,bollywood shows oftenly
18)zaheer khans restaurant,john abraham’s home,milind soman,sachin tendulkar,lata mangeshkar,[NEHA HINGE-MISS INDIA PFMI 2010]aww she z frm my college :P
19)u wl see all silence in bangalore during night times,after 1am,,,but pune,,ammazin,,its night z rockin,,,after mumbai dis z d city which never sleeps,if some student or hangout freak z readin dis,,,try sum places,CCD CHANDNI CHOWK,DHUAAN viman nagar,KOYLA,JASHN,its all nyt open wid DJs…guess what DJs come at dis places to chillout after their consoles :)
20)pune has the best college of computer science after the IITs,its PICT pune
21)banngalorians,,,ul find them always afraid of something,they r silent,puneites ul find much active…
22)living is a bit costlier in pune,but u cal feel the royality
23)if some1 likes rock music,pune is the rock capital ,,,u can find rock music almost everywhr in any pub
24)must visit the TOONS -THE LASER CAFE DOWN UNDER-its made for hard rock listeners,its the heaven,ive been to many hard rock shows,in mumbai,banglore,pune,hyderabad,but THE TOONS PUNE,ITS VRY SMALL,NOT COZY AMBIENCE,but the music makes the heaven,its ammmazin….just great
25)u want to see the infrastructure???go n visit the hinjewadi after 11 pm….
26)pune has the largest no. of two wheelers in india
27)pune supplies the mercedese in all over india,pune has the plant
28)pune gonna having the largest no. of rumways for air transportaion in a few years,chakan,vimannagar,lohegaon n one more(not remmbrin d name) 4 rumways in one city
29)pune is the only city,its having two citi in itself,,dats y its callet twin town plus :) PMC n PCMC
30)PCMC is the richest municipality of ASIA \m/
31)PCMC roads are compared to SINGAPORE :)
32)people are very open minded here than even bombay
33)nigfhtlife——wwoooooooooooooooohhhh….u can njoy the nightlife legally till 1pm,,illegagly till 5 pm in a club only ,,rest of all time iz yours {:P}
34)i saw sum1 was sayin abt pune’s railway station,dude its much much older than bangalore,it was not a planned project,huh
35)bangalore engineering students achieve 90-95 %marks,but pune university students get 70 % marks,pune university is one of the toughest university in asia,what package u get in bangalore after 90 % ul get the same in pune after havin 70% :P…..send a engineering student to pune from bangalore,i bet he/she will fail regularly :P dun tek it criously :P
36)PCMC has the most lush n greenary area
37)its declared in news(ibn)pune is all set to take on bangalore in IT sector in next two years(mind it )its true
38)it is thinking about to make pune-the wireless city-work had been started but due to conjustion prob it was stopped,but again it may start-then it will b the 1st wireless city
39)MG road is all fully WiFi :)
40)now my fingerz r painin,.,,,wl tl u some more points afterwardz,,,ok guyz
41)u can see the guts,IQ,ACTIVITY of a puneites in this message
PUNE ROCKS….BOMBAY IS THE BEST,the only city after bombay is pune
pune sucks.lavasa caught in legal tangle.copy cats.
pune is still baby in IT and knowledge.no need to describe bombay everybody knows where biggest slum resides.
heyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…..forgot to tell u guys,,,a very imp thing,,,,after the indtroducing team of PUNE SAHARA WARRIORS…maharashtra is the only state which has TWO IPL TEAMS….CREDITS TO PUNE
so wat pune is only there to get defeated.
hey! i am studin in blore…..been to pune twice…i feel pune is way betta than blore…interms of ppl,cost of living,……who said blore has gud weather??? its weather is detoriarating day by day…this years summer shows it all……only gud thing abt blore is d transport…i am plannin to move to pune for work…..fed up of conjusted blore…
Yea i agree with u suraj.i have worked in pune(2yrs) & bangalore(1.5yrs).
Now i am relocating to Pune from Bangalore.I will tell u some reasons for this:
1. Pune ppl(marathis) are more helpful compared to bangalore ppl.
2.Road are much wider and less congested in pune.
3.Bangalore has started volvos(bmtc red bus) but charges are high & conductors are unruly and whenever u object to something they start shouting in Kannad.PMPL may not have so many volvos but they ride at good speed and i have never encountered such misbehaving conductors till now.
4.Weather is good in bangalore..who says.it always rains and remains cloudy all day.moreover BDA has dug up all Bnaglore major roads,so there are innumerable pot-holes which makes traffic movement pathetic. Bangalore planning is too bad.
5.Bangalore ppl(read kannadigas) expect everyone to know kannad.They dont know hindi(national language of india) and expect all to know kannad ??
6.Bangalore ,liquor(desi & videshi) is sold openly in small shops(i initialy mistook as tea shops as they were serving in small glasses).
7.No other city has such beautifully carved out town-ships(margarpatta & hinjewadi).
8.In Bangalore its difficult to find a falt for rent ,most are individual houses,Pune has beautiful apartments & complexes and their rents & deposit are comparituvely less than bangalore.
9.So many nearby places to visit in Pune,Bangalore has only malls.Most of the days they remain so crowded that u will have impression that some puja is going on.ha ha ha.
10. Bangalore airport BIAL is 50kms from city,if you are i hurry u are sure to miss ur flight else keep 5 hrs in hand.Pune airport is also converting to internation one,best thing it is in city and near to railway station.
11.Bangalore- buses commute in straight roads,ie.if you stay inside a area ,you have to change buses.
12.Autowalas are biggest thieves and they will charge anything (independent of time).It happend to me several times that too in front of police,ultimately i bought a bike. :) ..also here heroes in films are shown as autowals most on the times.
13.people in bangalore build houses without plans,as aresult all houses are so close to each other.BDA only takes money & approve.
14.All theings in bangalore are unreasonably hiked,unless u stay in one of those off-limit areas or bustee areas.I stay in JP nagar,so i can say that.
Lastly,i ma neither from Pune nor Bangalore,but from kolkata,so i gave my independent view.
I am a true blood mumbaikar and a maharashtrian and have settled in pune , but i find pune exasperating to say the least . People have no traffic sense and there’s absolutely no sense of professional prevalent here , no respect for other people’s time and most of educated lot lack basic etiquette . Lets face it , Pune developed because of IT and its close proximity to Mumbai .
when i as a maharashtrian feel the vast difference between mumbai and bangalore , what hope do other people have
bangalore is way over hyped…in every sense…