Living with Fire, Ten Commandments !

 

--

“Animals need food, water and shelter. We humans need all those things, but we need fire too.” ― Richard W. Wrangham

“Fire is only your friend as long as you can control it! Without control, you have a powerful enemy!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

‘I know one sure thing about fire, it is ruthless”… Me.

Wrangham is so perfect, the only difference in all other animals & humans is, we use fire for making our lives better while every other living species prefers to keep away from the fire, a thing which we never notice or ignore. Mehmet, whose words of wisdom have always been by power play overs (plz google), is so perfect in warning us about the ignorance & I took ahead both of their wisdom, yes, fire is a dangerous thing! If you are wondering where this fire truck is going (sorry, pj) then last month there was news about a fire mishap in a Delhi hotel (well you can say latest or recent news) where nearly twenty plus lives were lost in that mishap! I usually read every mishap news with keen interest & especially when it’s related to buildings as that’s part of my profession (builder/ civil engineer) & I read about that incident in all the news papers & thought of writing about it (sharing) & thanks to few other topics which are dearer to me (tigers, cricket) somehow the fire thing took a back seat. And then again yesterday fire made headlines, needless to say for the wrong purpose & this time it was a mixed used building with gaming studio, bet clinic in Lucknow & again many lives lost! Now, I put aside all other topics (thankfully politics is never my forte & I like football but not a die-hard fan) & took help from Mehmet & Wrangham!

Ok, now you must have guessed its about fire accidents (though I don’t think it’s a right word) or mishaps & our attitude towards them! Before I start, I will ask a simple question to you, how frequently do you go to movies or to dine in restaurants? How many of you go to work in indoor offices? How many times you visit any commercial establishment in a week, for work or for casual purpose? How many of you own a well inetriored home? Oh yes, how often you travel to outstation & where you stay on such travels? I am sure the answers will be like, once in a month we go to the movies, once in a week we go to eat out, most of us we work in some office space & most of us have at least some basic interiors including cupboards’ & wall panelling & false ceiling at our home! And many of us travel because of work & few of us are lucky to travel as tourists, may it be wildlife or adventure or leisure & fun & mostly, we stay in some decent hotel property, are the replies I will get & even a few years back mine also would have been same!

Now, the second set of questions, what do you look at first or even once when you go to any movie theatre & restaurant? Every day when you come to your work place what's the first thing you think & while you leave the office what's the last thing you check? In your home interior have you thought about? When you book a hotel for work or fun, what things do you check before booking & what you check while actually entering that hotel?  And the answers will be, when we go to any theatre or hotel, we check the air-conditioning of the place, décor, cleanliness, toilet’s condition & ambiance as well cutlery in the hotel. When we visit any commercial building for work then we check the interior/ décor & lobbies as well cost of interior to know about the taste of the respective owner. When we come to our office, first we check whether the internet/ Wi-Fi is on & when we leave, we check the AC system is off & so are the lights. When we book any hotel for a work trip or for fun, we check location, room sizes, interiors, breakfast spread, free WIFI, TV & when we actually check we try to compare what we have seen on the website & what’s actual scene, that’s all! Again, these will be the replies which I will get (if somebody cares to write back) & I too would have done a few years back! You will be wondering what’s this has to do regarding fire mishaps, then all above question were targeted exactly about that aspect & the would be answers I am sure will miss most important part of being in every above place & that is, our ignorance, negligence or over confidence about fire safety, which is subject of my sharing.

First & foremost we people (read as Indians) are foolishly overconfident which we consider as our smartness & we love to save money even at the cost of our life & outcome is fire safety in any of above-mentioned places i.e. Home, office, hotel, cinema, restaurant, commercial spaces are not on our checklist! The single right answer to my entire second set of questions about what you check while visiting or booking a place should be, fire safety at the place & getting knowledge of what I should do in-case of fire or any such emergency! And another answer should be, I will check the legality of such a place, may it be a hotel or animation coaching class or a restaurant or cinema hall! Nobody checks this because we think we are born fire proof means no such thing will happen where we are sitting, or eating or working or sleeping & exactly this attitude is the reason which took lives of both Delhi hotel victims & recent Lucknow animation studio & vet clinic fire victim! I know, relatives of the deceased as well many readers will curse me for this useless outcome of my sharing but keeping full respect for your emotions, one, this is not judgement or conclusion, this is just one of the many facts if we want to avoid more such fire mishaps which are not mishaps but outcome of our ignorance! You will say what govt was doing, what fire dept was doing till the fire broke loose, why such structures are allowed to exist where no fire norms are followed & the list of questions is big but my question is who forced you to book a room in such hotel or enrol yourself in a classroom which is illegal & which doesn’t have any fire safety norms in existence. And why I am saying this is its your life which is going to get lost in case of the fire & not of the hotel owner or cinema hall owner of the coaching class building’s owner, & though he may get punishment for not doing his job! Just because you didn’t care to check about the fire safety norms of the respective place where you are going to spend some time by paying your hard-earned money, now tell me who paid the bigger price of fire you or the place owner or the govt & then you will (may) understand my point of view about fire mishaps & live lost in them!

Today, when I enter in any such mentioned place, especially the crowded ones like cinema or pub, the first thing I look around is for fire fighting equipment’s locations i.e. fire hose, extinguishers etc. Then I look for the location of emergency exits & way to reach there & then I decide where to sit in-case of a restaurant. This may sound weird & phobiatic but even though you are travelling by aeroplane every day yet they make you to listen the drill telling you the location of emergency exits & how to use them, right? So, because some criminal minded businessman fails to do it at his place who has stopped you to check these basic things which can be life saver for your life, is the question I want to put forward to you all!

If you check a bit then you will not be surprised that most of the cases of fire mishap where people have lost lives, majority of such buildings or premises were illegal, means built or put in use without proper sanction from the local competent authority for egg PMC for Pune city! And no wonder they don’t have any fire NOC type things in place meaning no fire fighting system in case of fire. At the same time a person who doesn't care to get any sanction for his building just think, what kind of quality work he must be doing & no fire starts on its own in any building. Usually, it’s a short circuit because of poor quality wiring which is the reason for start of fire & with no proper firefighting system or smoke detectors or any such thing in place till the time you realize there is fire it's too late for the occupants of such buildings. All this could have been avoided if you have patience & ability to control your greed to save little money in exchange of your own life instead blabbing govt or asking questions how such illegal building comes into existence as post your life is gone there is no value of such questions & their answers, right?

And why blame illegal buildings of unknown people, even today in our own homes how many people have checked whether there is a proper fire tackling system, none, is my answer! We spend lakhs of rupees for our posh interiors but we forget to keep one fire extinguisher in every room! In many flats I have seen the sprinkler pipes & their nozzles have been concealed as they look shabby as per the interior designer! As per building rules in every high rise building there has to be a fire fighting system according to height & volume of building which are of height more than 24 meters but even two storied buildings can be victim of fire & whom you will be blaming for it then but your own self, right? Rather, this is the reason for my sharing that we as sensible citizens & humans if we start taking some basic care & precaution then there will be fires but you won’t be the victim & for that may it be other’s building or your own home or office you have to take responsibility & act! So, here are some tips which actually you should grasp as, “10 Fire Commandments”, because if you follow them then it's your life which will be a better & longer for sure, here are they…

1.While you visit any place for work or entertainment or to stay (hotel room), do check its legality & sanctions.

2.Do ask questions about the fire safety norms they are following at their property & then book the hotel room.

3.While visiting any crowded confined place such as Cinema Hall or Restaurant, do look for firefighting equipments & fire exit arrangements & keep it in mind all the time while you are in that place.

4.Always choose a seat near to fire exit & keep wet tissue in you purse of bag as these small things comes handy in case of fire,

5.Always have emergency numbers in your cell phone stored for single touch call & most important keep your location setting on when in such a place so people can track you exactly if you get trapped in case of fire.

6.If you work in office or have your own set up then do conduct periodical fire audit & fire drill so you as well you colleagues are used to such situation & know how to act in case of fire,

7.In your residential building also get a fire audit done periodically, if your society is not doing so then do ask them in writing & write to authorities for such attitude of the society.

8.In your flat don’t tamper with fire safety arrangements if the builder has given & if he has not then do ask it before taking possession of the flat.

9.Even if your home doesn’t need special fire fighting arrangements as per the building rules yet take guidance from some expert about fire threat, for ex getting fire alarms/ sensors in every room. Do mind no fire starts with a warning bell & by appointment, you should know when it starts to control it fast!

10.Do have fire insurance as even after all such precautions, accidents can still happen & a fire insurance is the right way to recover some damage by fire. Do check the terms & conditions of fire insurance as it's a tricky document when you claim for damage & small errors of word can cost you a lot! 

 

I am deliberately not telling govt what to do on fire mishap aspect, to stop or say reduce fire incidences in buildings as it’s like speaking to a faceless entity & in govt everybody knows what should be done & there are enough rules for fire safety but still nobody takes responsibility & start acting, so be it! Friends, fire is an inherently important part of our life & we all need it but only when we control it in right way or else it knows only one thing, burn down whatever comes in its way & we definitely don’t want ourselves to be in the way of an uncontrolled fire, adios with this warning!

-

  Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Iran War, Water War & Real Estate!

 

                                                         

--

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” … Mark Twain

“A man says a lot of things in summer he doesn't mean in winter.” … Patricia Briggs

“What the four seasons of the year mean to the European, the one season of the monsoon means to the Indian” …Khushwant Singh

War & Summer, both are important as war makes us realize how important peace is & summer makes us realize how important monsoon is… Me

Mark Twain was hundred percent right; thanks to the US's present President, he made us realize these words once again! About Patracia, come summer & our newspapers & society starts talking about rains & importance of water! Khushwant Singhs’ knack of putting difficult topics in the simplest way is well known & I only try to summarize these words of wisdom in my own way! Well, by the time you will be reading this sharing both, war & summer might have come to an end (hopefully) & I am sure never more than the last three months the entire country has waited to end war & summer & real estate isn’t exception to this! Though just the way even after the earthquakes the tremors keep threatening there will be the same reaction & then there is recovery time which will decide the fate of many segments (read as business houses & industries too). When the war started nearly four months back (28^th Feb 26) & immediately it surrounded the safest city as well region in the world i.e. Dubai & UAE, many around the world were secretly happy, thinking the business houses which had run for their money will look for other regions as their next home. Logic is simple, war or no war, the world doesn’t stop for anybody & anything especially trading & financial companies which we call service sector. And many real estate pundits started giving India as next best destination for real estate as all these companies will be needing another base & hardly at two hours flight, with chances of war hitting very less than middle east, India is best option for UAE real estate i.e. Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad & Noida (well, where is real estate barring these four regions, anyways). And then add in it the man power available (tech slaves) here in abundance, logically the Real Estate Pundits were right & I am deliberately using the term were as in next four months things changed tracks faster than Race movie’s script (plz google) & here we are, at the end of war (hopefully) & facing the next war which is with nature!

I am not a Real Estate expert but a small timer by myself, but I am in this for last thirty plus years & has survived, that’s enough qualification & more than that my sharing’ are not to conclude or blame someone but its simple analysis of what I have been experiencing & what we can (or should) do about it; waidhanik ishara! Ok, for the impact of war, what the Pundits failed to assess or guess is, our dependency on many things which are so much part of our life & which decides our product’s costing also & all this can come at stand still due to a small strip of water way & overnight! Hormuz is now a common terminology & it feels like Kothrud or Hadapsar & what we forgot is, our entire real estate’s raw material barring cement & steel, depends on natural gas & oil & if a war happens in the middle east, then real estate here, also can get directly hit with it, which it has! In the last four months production cost of building industry i.e. home (read as construction) has soured up by nearly 20% & its just a rough guess because as usual going by the tradition of this industry there is no R & D in place to assess the exact damage. Though individual companies & professionals are working on their respective projects but again real estate is a very local industry & cut-paste solutions are not applicable here. At the same time aspects like transportation cost, storage cost, consumption, demand can vary largely according to a particular region & can have varying effects on the construction cost respectively. For e.g., cement is produced in central India & carrying it to Pune it has to travel nearly thousand kilometers & increase in rate of diesel is going to hit directly cement rate in Pune than Nagpur. Though for industries like cement where there are very few people it always rates of Pune to Nagpur & never vice versa, that’s how the system works in our country for real estate as there is no controlling authority!

And then there are items where petrochemical is directly involved such as paint, as well ceramic material such as sanitary wares & tiles which needs large fuel quantity for burning the furnaces, supply of which was at stand still for unavailability of fuel & then rise is oil rates making the manufacturers rising the rates of finished product! Again, a dent for construction cost impact of which is yet to be analysed by the industry! At the same time there is another war going on which on surface may not have anything to do directly with real estate but indirectly it’s a damage on the buyers of real estate & that is, threat of AI! Thankfully with man power & absence of technology & R & D in real estate though AI is not a direct threat yet jobs are getting lost all around the globe means lesser buyer for the homes as well for office spaces, means lesser revenue for real estate. This may not be fact, yet India runs on sentiments & sentiments says be afraid of AI & Aam Janata follows it. Of late, the majority of buyers in Pune & such regions are techno based & if they are afraid of the job itself how can they book a new, bigger home, is logic. They are in a mood of wait & watch & outcome is again lesser revenues for real estate, this is what we are observing around though we are either too afraid to acknowledge it or fool, in both cases facts won’t change, is my subject of sharing! And then there is USA which is set with all guns to make itself Great again, means more investors running towards USA & we already have world’s first trillionaire there while most of businesses in our country are striving to raise funds is a fact. And the problem with real estate is that you can't export your product, so we will have to get the buyers here to buy our homes, is something which our Mai Baap govt also should understand is my subject of sharing!

And the last nail in the coffin was delayed summer opening one more front for the war & its water front! Last year it rained 125% i.e. lot more than the average rainfall so we were happy & thought this year also will be same & our state’s elections were in the last year, needless to say the govt was busy in distributing water (and subsidies) like there is no tomorrow but nature doesn’t work like govt & it has shown us the tomorrow in the form of today’s draught! Yes, there is drought already on the front of water as it's the last week of June & we don’t have rains means even if from tomorrow we get heavy rains then it will still take a month just to fill up the deficit of water till now & which means less water for everybody! Imagine just a choke up in the supply cycle of oil can make such havoc what havoc there will be if the water supply chain gets choke up, this is something which the real estate industry must look at very seriously & act! Here many will say what can we do on the water's front, it's the government's responsibility, well govt has already shrugged it off by making developers’ give undertaking for everything available under the sun! Govt (read as sanctioning authorities) makes builder responsible for supplying water for the projects, drainage line, storm water lines, electric supply (at our cost for infrastructure), road & what not & on the top of this we are supposed to do a perfect quality product construction also which is our duty & yet keep the city green also! From where we are going to make money if we have to spend on all the fronts & we don’t have enough buyers who can buy homes at our quoted rates, is something not govt’s responsibility because govt doesn’t consider us as an industry or thinks we can take care of ourselves!

To add the salt on the burn (jale pe namak chidkana) there is one more war real estate has to face & that is war with local authorities about the policies which directly hurts (burns) real estate & latest drone or missile is in the form of RMC rates! In today’s construction concrete is an inherent factor & thanks to UDCPR (plz google) we have buildings to build with no space to store material at site & for that ready mix concrete popularly known as RMC is the best & only solution. For common people it's like Zomato or Swiggy for real estate as you order ready concrete for your site & vendors deliver it. These vendors, just the way hoteliers have cloud kitchens, have RMC making plants all around the city from which this concrete is delivered to the respective sites. Now suddenly (with due respect to govt) govt realized most of these RMC plants don't follow pollution control  norms & has been ordered to shut as well their concrete carrying trucks are a menace for traffic of the city (as per police) & on most roads in day time these trucks are banned! (BTW, PMT busses also cause lots of accidents, imagine banning them on roads, just a thought of sarcasm) Outcome is, there was no concrete & the sites were at stand still for more than a month & finally few RMC plants started to operate as well limited hours transportation of concrete is allowed but all these things made RMC vendors to increase their rates by nearly forty to fifty percent & add increase in fuel rates in it, bang, hers goes construction cost again for toss, who cares, definitely not the govt! Why can’t we work out a proper solution for essential things like RMC & make it available at minimum price to the developers is my question!  And then there are issues like use of treated water for construction for which builders are blamed that we oppose this idea (read as a genius idea) but nobody answers the question how to get treated water at site as regular tanker guys don't carry it as their tankers get useless for normal water. Then where to store this recycled water on site as its harmful for humans so it has to be stored separately along with the piping & pumping system. As well, who will take guarantee of quality of such water if we want to use it for construction as the wrong percentage of hazardous chemicals in such water can damage the quality of concrete & plaster, what about that? Nobody is ready to answer these questions, but the builders are supposed to take the blame for using good water for construction, especially when water war is in full swing.

This year’s summer is harsh & rains has been delayed but what about last year when we had good rains, what we did with that water, why the building norms are not being changed keeping water as focus point of construction, many questions with no one taking responsibility to answer them but we want builders to follow the norms & complete the building in time & affordable for the buyers , wow, lets ask AI, if it has got answer to this, is the only thing which comes to my mind! Guys, war, water scarcity are not things in our control but we have to take them in consideration & brace ourselves for the same as that’s called planning. For real estate friends also, we need to understand one very clear thing, whether we complete our flats & make some money or not, the govt is least bothered about it but issues like water & construction cost we must be aware about the same & keep a keen eye to tackle them or else whoever will be the winner of the war, may it be war with Iran or with water, the real estate only will end-up as a looser; adios with this warning!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Prime Minister's Appeal, Petrol Prices & Public Transport!

 

                                         

                                                          

                                          

--

“You can't understand a city without using its public transportation system.” ― Erol Ozan

“Good transportation as well as good roads are necessary to promote sustainable tourism.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita

"Wherever possible, reduce the use of petrol and diesel. Use the Metro, use electric buses and public transport more, promote carpooling." … Hon.Modiji, PM of India

I personally hate driving & I can afford a driver but I love road trips though they consume lots of time… Me.

Hon PM Sir,

Here are a few questions for the readers other than PM Sir, to start my sharing (and to set the tempo); have you noticed something while you read newspapers (if anybody reads) in the month of May, which is our official school holiday time & peak for tourism season? Do you know how many Indians lost their lives in road accidents in the year 2025? How many of you have last travelled by railway or State Transport bus or say private bus, on overnight journey? How many of you have tried to book a railway ticket to Mumbai or Nagpur (question is for Pune people)? What is the best part & worst part on road trips with private vehicles in India, in your opinion? Well, I can keep firing questions with more speed than Bumrah & with stamina like R Ashwin (Plz google) but the sharing is not supposed to be about only questions but some answers also or else it’s just critics which I am not, so be it! Ok, you must have thought this is about holiday trips then you are right partially as the sharing is about trips (read as travels) but it’s about road as well rail journey & more specifically about our public transport & it’s about appeal by our Hon Prime Minister Modiji to use public transport for commuting & it’s about accidents on the roads also! 

Ok, first about the quotes, yes, roads are like mirror of a city & right from the people on these roads to the cleanliness & condition of the roads, one look at them & you can tell the kind of life this city offers & Ozan is very right in her quote to mention this aspect of the roads. Speaking about Akita, her words speak about the importance of good road conditions & the infrastructure along, for tourism’s (road trips) growth in any city or country. Then our Modiji’s words, which are appeal to our Aam Janta / public which is like an antidote for ever rising prices of fuel & lastly, my own words about driving or road trips! And now coming to the questions & speaking for myself, I do read newspapers & that is an important aspect of my daily routine & in the month of May, every single day there was news of road accidents & deaths of travellers & more importantly most of these accident’s victims are from private vehicles, is my observation. In our country approximately one & half lakh people die in road accidents every year & year 2025 was not an exception to the same & probably a double of that get permanently injured, making the total victim figure nearly five lakh per year. I last travelled by railway nearly five years back, from Mumbai to Jabalpur in MP, overnight journey it was. I don’t remember travelling by ST Bus (Lal Dabba, popular name of ST) or any bus in the last ten years. I have tried booking a ticket for Pune Nagpur of railway "N" number of times & always ending unsuccessfully to get a confirmed ticket! Best part of travelling on Indian roads is, you can stop anywhere you want, get down for pee or eat your lunch or just take selfie & worst part is, you have to stop for pee anywhere only because there are no clean toilets on any road which you can use if the toilets are in existence in the first place! Guys, this is not some prank or joke but please do write me back your replies to the above questions as it matters a lot for the subject of sharing!

Seriously, I am hundred percent sure, that ninety percent readers if they write me back or doesn’t, their answers will be matching to mine & about the rest ten percent, well every law has an exception, so be it! First of all, thanks to the Hon PM, whether it be fuel crisis or anything, he appealed for use of public transport which has opened Box of Pandora (like this sharing) & first question is, where is the public transport in this country? With all due respect to the railways which is probably is the largest railway network & carrying maximum numbers of people every day but that’s credit of nearly one fifty plus crore our population & eighty percent out of that can’t afford private transportation & still I will give due credit to our country’s railway management as to work with so less infrastructure for so many people, is not a joke! But the question remains, will you call railways an effective public transport & for that first we have to define the term public transport, right? And when I say effective public transport then four ways are there to do so; one is roads, two is railway, three is (was) waterway or boat & fourth is air. And out of this most people are forced (you read right, forced) to use the last option which is the costliest because the first three are ineffective is my subject of sharing! Just two/ three decades back air travel was meant only for super riches or business’s top management class & many will say thanks to our country’s leadership (present & past) now even so-called middle-class families can also fly! But are they doing it by will, is the question, because take a simple case of travel from Pune -Nagpur, this distance is approximately 800 km & by even average speed of 60 km per hour the journey should take 13 hours, which it takes nearly 15 hours by road. But the same journey by railway takes nearly 14 hours. Now, in vacation seasons such as the month of May there are hardly four to five State transport buses & out of that two only are AC coaches. Even if we calculate 50 passengers per bus then it becomes just three hundred passengers per day, & this is the cheapest option of travel from Pune to Nagpur, with average ticket per person is say Rs 1200. So, for a family of four it's Rs 5000, one-way trip. Now, sleeper class non-AC railway sleeper coach ticket is Rs 1500 per head, so a family trip one way spending is nearly Rs 6000. There is no water way (thankfully) to Nagpur from Pune, means, boat option is not there, so let’s look at the air travel option. In peak season air tickets, even if booked months earlier, are Rs 4000 per person, which means for a family of four one-way spending is Rs 16,000 & then you have to reach air-port minimum two hours early, that’s ok.

Let’s see the challenges in road & railway travel in Pune Nagpur journey, as there are hardly any road State Transport buses which travel overnight so people either have to spare the whole day in travel or take refuge of private public transport. Here the rates can match air travel in holiday season, which means one way spending for a family can be nearly Rs.10,000, making it costlier option as well here the worst thing is, risk of night travel on roads even if you are ok with poorest road travel infrastructure such as eateries & horrible toilet conditions!  These private buses rarely follow any safety norms, the drivers are young, inexperienced & reckless as well drunk also, no wonder maximum road accidents which happen at nights are of private buses, so most people avoid this option. And now railway booking, well, to my knowledge there are ten trains which go to Nagpur from Pune & even if the train carrying capacity by numbers of passengers is 60 person per coach with fourteen bogies, we are talking about just 8400 numbers! While the need is of nearly 25,000 persons per day as with my wild guess, nearly five lakh people stays in Pune region which are originally from Nagpur region & even if we are talking about fifty percent lot, see the numbers & this doesn’t include daily or regular commuting as well the trains which goes beyond Nagpur & such passengers! No wonder, any day of the year you check the railway booking chart for Nagpur from Pune, it's full! {*And this I am referring to only Nagpur city, as take example of Tadoba which is probably our country most popular wildlife destination & is only 90 km away from Nagpur, if you reach Nagpur by any means, there is no commuting public transport of right mode keeping in mind safari timings for tadoba, making business of taxis in most demand running to & fro between Nagpur -Tadoba, denting pockets of tourists & of nation too!}

This makes only two options available for people travelling Pune Nagpur i.e. buy air ticket at whatever rate its there & that too weird flight timing such as morning five am, so you have to wake up at two am or go to Nagpur by your private car & Hon PM sir this is my subject of sharing! And here again, most people who can’t afford driver either choose option of self-driving & they are not trained for such long drives as well to save day time, takes night driving, these are the people who meet their fate in the form of accident on the roads & whole blame goes to the system which can’t provide them safe public transport option, apart from spending on fuel, is my subject of sharing! These passengers are not travelling by private cars for fun, they just don’t have any option because of budget & because of unavailability of any other travelling means which you are referring as public transport, first accept this bitter fact Sir, is the reason I am writing to you as I gave example of connectivity between just two cities i.e. Pune & Nagpur but the scene is the same all around the country on the public transport front!

The solution is not in building more roads or expressways or starting a few Vande-Matram Trains of select routes but we must start a separate Ministry for Public Transport which will focus on creating more options of commuting with right infrastructure & pricing, for the Public (read as, masses)! This ministry will have all commuting means under its wing & responsibility of maintaining them for e.g. imagine a Central Road transport Service & taxi service which we don’t have in the first place!  And for that start working on statistics of how much public transport we actually need & on which routes & form. Till that time under this ministry make units which will check existing infrastructure of public transport & take action on their poor conditions by following present responsible departments & at least for the first year ask your PMO office to take these unit’s reporting! PM Sir, I understand your security reasons but please ask your Senior Babus (officers) & ministers & MLAs, MPs to book tickets of our country’s public transport for themselves as a normal citizen & if they are lucky to get those tickets to travel without their Govt IDs’ & then ask them their experiences about our Public Transport, after that if you think my all-above words are just criticism then you can punish me whatever way you want! Sir, with current prices of diesel & petrol, nobody wants to use even a bike leave apart car (I am referring to common people), so you don’t have to appeal them for using public transport, just give them a right public transport option & see how they will bless you for ever, is all I will say to conclude my sharing, thanks a lot for giving me opportunity to express my views & will be happy if they are of some use, adios with this note!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/