How My Home Pune Lost the Smart City Tag, One Infra Blunder at a Time - News18

In Infra Vaani, noted urban infra expert Akhileshwar Sahay dissects infrastructural challenges of Indian cities and offers solutions. When Patankar entrusted me with the responsibility of leading the ‘International Conference: Nurturing Together Sustainable Cities in Asia’ organised by the Pune Municipal Corporation, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and their sister city Bremen of Germany in the run up to the ‘World Summit on Sustainable Development’ in Johannesburg, South Africa, little did I know that I would soon be a proud “Punekar”. As per McKinsey Global Institute’s April 2010 report ‘India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities, Sustaining Economic Growth’: ‘By 2030, Pune will be 6th largest Indian city with 10 million population and $76 billion GDP.’ But ask any Punekar and they will tell you that all is not well despite the city scoring high on the official ‘Ease of Living Index’ and often being named among one of the ‘cleanest cities’. First, Pune’s existing road density is woefully short of Delhi’s average road density of 22 km per sq km and way below the ideal 12 sq km for a metro city. Pune planners forgot to look at metro rail solution when the city needed it, instead they toyed with non-solutions including the now infamous ‘Skybus’.