by Mr. Arvind Jain,
Managing Director - Pride Group
There are good reasons why Pune has emerged as one of
the most aspired-for residential destinations in India today. The fact that it
is so well connected to Mumbai is only the tip of the iceberg. Pune is an
economic powerhouse in its own right, being home to a wealth of multinational
companies and industries.
These organizations have ensured that Pune has emerged
as one of the most important employment centres in the country. Needless to
say, employment drives demand for real estate.
Pune's pace of urban growth has been unparalleled, with
the number of people migrating into the city from all over the country
increasing every year.
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| Arvind Jain, M D – Pride Group |
This influx has required major infrastructure
upgradation on all fronts, including road connectivity, parking facilities, public
transport and electricity and water supply.
Pune Development Plan 2041..
Accordingly, the Government has laid out a very
ambitious roadmap for Pune's infrastructure in the Pune Development Plan 2041.
One of the most important aspects of this plan is a multi-faceted transport
which envisages a considerably enhanced road network, a metro system as well as
a number of new bridges, flyovers, subways and skywalks.
This is necessary, as it is very evident that Pune's
growth is not a temporary phenomenon - the city will expand exponentially in
the years to come, both geographically and in scope. If Pune's development
authorities do not take a realistic look at what the next two to three decades
hold in store, the city will eventually fail to maintain this growth and begin
to decay.
One of the most important aspects that need to be
considered is the maintenance and enhancement of accessibility. This includes
internal accessibility between Pune's various residential and commercial nodes,
as well as approachability from other key cities.
Boosting accessibility includes the construction of new
roads, widening of existing roads which tend to bottleneck, providing flyovers
and subways to ease traffic congestion and more efficient and reliable public
transport. As far as the proposed Pune Metro is concerned, there are serious
questions about how effective it would be to ease the city's rapidly increasing
accessibility issues.
On the other hand, the approval of the 90-meter wide
Ring Road which will connect the PMC and PCMC is definitely a reason to cheer.
Likewise, the approval of Pune's new international airport is definitely a step
in the right direction. The city's economy is very much dependent on foreign
business, and opening the city up to global business travel will assuredly bode
well for its various industries.
Efficient Transport..
But is accessibility the only aspect that the city's
development plan should focus on? Is more efficient transport really all it
takes to keep a city like this viable over the long haul? Thanks to the fact
that Pune has a lot of potential for horizontal urban growth, the city is
constantly adding new areas to its borders.
But, at the same time, the standard of living within the
inner city is on a visible decline. Holistic urban growth is not just about
expansion, but also about the constant improvement of existing central areas.
Also, it is important for Pune to maintain a healthy
balance of housing types across various affordability bands. As we face the
prospect of ever-increasing urban density in the city, both the planning
authorities and Pune's real estate developers must remember that it takes more
than just 'premium' and 'luxury' housing to maintain and grow a city. Whenever
an imbalance of housing for all income groups occurs, the economic viability of
a city begins to degrade.
A city like Pune is sustained a huge cross-section of
service streams, ranging from blue-collar workers on factory shop floors and in
retail warehouses to white-collar business executives and CEOs.
The economic relationship between these classes is inalienable
and symbiotic - neither can exist without the other. Each individual from all
income streams has a family that needs to be housed in safety and relative
comfort. This means that the city will, at all times, have to produce housing
that is affordable from the lowest to the highest income streams.
Large Townships..
The latest regulations require a minimum of 20 % housing
in large townships to be reserved for the economically weaker sections.
However, despite the fact that townships are proliferating in Pune, such a
reservation will not suffice to meet the needs of the city's less prosperous
denizens in the future. Meanwhile, we are looking at a scenario wherein Pune's
developers are increasingly focusing on high-priced mid-income and premium
housing projects.
Affordable housing requires special incentives to
developers, and these must necessarily come from the Government. However, it
also requires a consensus of collective consciousness among a city's developers
themselves. There has to be a point at which one is willing to look less at the
bottom line and more at what the city really needs in order to continue to grow
and prosper.
For Media Contact:
Mr. Jay Kalghatgi
Client Interface - CopyConnect
Mobile: 93201 42248
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