Pune: In Quest Of An Identity [Pg.2]

If Kalyani's quote makes you, patient reader who works in a concrete jungle like Delhi or Mumbai, think of driving 20 minutes after a hard day's work to a home nestled in the lap of nature, hold your horses. Yes, Pune still has a 'green-cover' of 40 per cent, and it is possible to find such a home, but rapid growth has made some areas dense with high-rise residential complexes. The city administration claims the Kotrud borough, off the arterial Karve Road, is the most crowded in South East Asia in terms of density of buildings. ''High rises are coming up indiscriminately, affecting our infrastructure,'' says T.C. Benjamin, the Municipal Commissioner of Pune.

Commuting in Pune is the stuff B-grade horror flicks are made of. Thermax's chairperson Anu Aga wistfully recalls the Pune she knew that was a 'bicycle-space'. Today, Pune's roads are clogged with a mix of buses, motorised contraptions that can ferry six people at a time (but often end up doing more) that the city's inhabitants call 'six-seaters', every brand of car made and sold in India, and two-wheelers. Pune, some reports show, has more vehicles per a lakh of population, 10,000, than Mumbai (5,000), and the typical peak-hour commute is rarely shorter than 40 minutes.

Pune also boasts the highest density of two-wheelers in any South Asian city, 6.5 lakh for a population of 27 lakh, and these vehicles along with 4,000-odd six-seaters contribute much to the chaos on the roads. ''We simply do not have the infrastructure to handle so much traffic,'' rues Benjamin. He does have a blueprint to streamline things-increasing the bus service, banning six-seaters from plying in some areas, and accelerating the Konkan Railway's Sky Bus metro project (an elevated railway service)-but things are still on paper. The traffic has also caused pollution levels to spiral upwards: Suspended particulate matter levels often cross 200, as against the acceptable 50.

None of these, though, are any different from the problems faced by other cities, from Rome to Brasilia to near-by Mumbai. Which could be one reason why professionals who have moved to Pune from other Indian metros believe the city has no peer when it comes to quality-of-life issues. ''Nothing is too far away and my children have access to great education and sporting facilities,'' says Manjushi Kher, a Patni Computers employee who moved to Pune in 1996.

Somethings growth can't take away. Thus Pune will always have a great educational infrastructure, its weather will remain temperate, and it will always, to state the obvious, be close enough to Mumbai's international airport (170 kms). Others may fall by the wayside: cost of living, pollution levels, ease of commuting, and the availability of affordable residential and commercial space. And that could hurt. A city that has just come into its own as a centre of diversified business activity, courtesy a combination of both sets of factors, would do well to realise that.

Jobs@pune

Deepak Gupta, CEO, Korn Ferry
"Pune offers a fairly large canvas of human capital."

Pune has historically been an industrial base, dominated by large Indian manufacturing companies (TELCO, Bajaj, Finolex, Kalyani Steel, Bharat Forge, Kirloskar) as well as multinationals (SKF, Alfa Laval, Sandvik Asia, Tetrapak). These companies are predominantly in the auto, auto ancillary and capital equipment sectors. Recently however, Information Technology (MBT, Zenstar) has made inroads into Hinjwati, a town 20 km from Pune and has been a major growth sector for this city. And white-good manufacturers like Whirlpool and Philips, have set up their bases here. Pune is truly a cosmopolitan city. Over the years it has managed to attract many outside professionals. Today it is home to many, offering attractive professional and personal opportunities. Pune offers a fairly large canvas of human capital, especially engineers. The city also has a great climate and excellent quality of life. It boasts a large number of reputed educational institutions. All this, coupled with its proximity to Mumbai (courtesy the new expressway) make Pune an attractive proposition for both businesses and individuals.