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“Jokes are hilarious only when you take them unreal and dreamlike, otherwise it becomes painful. So I always live otherworldly.”... Saket Assertive.
Ok, I don’t know who this guy is but I read his above quote somewhere & found it very amusing especially as the joke word’s definition has never been described so wonderfully ever at least I haven’t came across till now! And when it's a joke how we can keep our beloved Pune city away from it as Punekar's love to crack jokes (check social media) especially about other cities or places or people but what about the jokes this city cracks everyday on its citizens, well if you don’t believe, here are some classic examples! We all definitely know about the Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal our pride is one of them but what happens when the jokes become wonders, confused? I don’t blame you but our Pune city also has some wonders which have become a joke actually & will share why I say so (as I can see angry faces after reading this start). When I say wonders turn into joke then before I further express myself let me tell you I don’t want to rub anybody wrongly especially of the system which we call govt as it includes each of us in some way yet the hard fact about these wonders becoming a joke remains! As the very purpose these structures has been built (well some never has been build) & few of them we only demolished after building, this is what makes them wonderful jokes (wonders plus joke), I know its a bad joke but this is my sharing so let’s move on! (Cycle on rent, Citizens Help Centres, PMT etc are few more jokes)
Ok, here is a list of seven wonders of this city which became a joke (there are many others but I have to choose just seven) & they are HCMTR, Z-Bridge, Cycle Track, BRT, River Front Development, Domestic Airport & Ring Road! Now if you don’t know any of these seven things then you are not Punekar though you can read as you may laugh more loudly then, after reading it! All these are name of structures or developments or policies regarding Pune city (as some ended just as policy on paper) & let me again tell you, this is not to criticize the system but to make people aware as indeed Pune has been blessed with some real good things for it’s citizens & that’s why the city has become a dear place to live across the country & the same system which runs this city definitely deserves applauds for this achievement. But then to become the best you have to analyze our wonderful jokes (read as failures) & not just the goody goody things, right? This is why I took on the topic of wonderful jokes in the making of the city, so here we start...
HCMTR i.e. High Capacity Mass Transport Route
In the development plans some 30 years back (please don’t ask what is a development plan) a thought has been incorporated thinking about increasing traffic load in the city centre & diverting this traffic without bothering the city roads. So an elevated route or say over bridge or in common terminology flyover has been planned which will start from one end of the city & will reach to another end of the city (end means PMC limit then). This has been planned so the vehicles which don’t want to enter the city will use this route & without disturbing city traffic they will pass from space (sorry, too much sarcasm) i.e. overhead by using this flyover, super na? So, this some 30 plus kilometre length flyover has been incorporated on the development plan of the city but now after thirty years not a single meter length of it has seen daylight, means not constructed. Reasons are, budget provisions & its technical feasibility & many more, so I included HCPTR in the list of seven wonderful jokes as even today there is reservation for it & its original route or track has been changed more than the years it has been taken birth on paper & outcome is choked up roads all in & around city!
Z- Bridge
This is a unique wonderful joke as it has come in reality & has survived demolition also (till now). Well, this is a two-wheeler’s (only) bridge connecting old & new Pune city & why it’s called as a Z bridge because it runs more distance parallel to the river Mutha (is it still a river, is another question) than crossing it! If you don’t understand what it means then visit it by yourself & you will know & anyway it’s more famous for being a cozying place for couples than carrying vehicles across it! Again with due respect, there always are problems in making plans to develop an old city with a new one but can’t there be some other options or ways to spend the money on structures which later become useless, is something we should ask, is what I feel.
Cycle Tracks
The city once known as bicycle city because of the maximum numbers of citizens using bicycles as a sure mean of commuting across the city for daily chores, its a real sad joke that now has been made the joke named Cycle Tracks! Approximately some fifteen years back all along the footpaths (read as, on the footpaths) there has to be dedicated cycle tracks means a space only for bicycles is some Good Samaritan planner thought & our Mananiya's i.e. elected members of PMC happily accepted the idea of the planner. What followed was a wonderful joke as first the place of bicycles has already been taken by two wheeler vehicles (approx 30 lakhs of them) courtesy our poor public transport & then we had cycle tracks but no bicycles or bicyclers to use them. And the most cycle tracks become places for trade for every sort of commodity from sun glasses to paw bhaji eaters & what now. There were signage also nicely designed all along these cycle tracks though no provision to see that they are being used for bicyclers as well at many places the cycle tracks abruptly used to end in main traffic road making it impossible for the users to drive with feel of safety & comfort & the basic purpose was defeated & the concept got tag of a wonderful joke!
BRT i.e. Bus Rapid Transit
Bus Rapid Transit or something like that (who cares), again a great effort (or thought) to strengthen public transport of the city & that included giving dedicated space on the road for public transport busses (PMT, another joke) which failed miserably! This joke was continued for more than decade trying, experimenting, executing, planning, publicizing & what now by every agency related to it & we all even the common citizens are part making BRT as a wonderful joke! As if the system executed it badly then we the people added fuel in it by pushing our private vehicles in these dedicated lanes reserved for PMT i.e. public transport vehicles defeating the very purpose of it! At the same time crores of rupees has been spent on making these bus dedicated lanes, even narrowing the already narrow lane & the best part of the joke is now on the grave of the BRT we will be making columns as the “mai baap” rulers (govt) realized that the BRT lanes are obstacles for the Metro Columns (New joke in making) & most part of BRT has been scraped away literally including physical demolishing of BRT stations also at some places! As well there were countless accidents which took many lives due to BRT routes & for which the citizen’s reckless attitude is also equally responsible!
River Front Development
If you are not Punekar then let me tell you this city has two rivers also which flows right through entire stretch of the city & joke is we have to tell the visitors that these are rivers, such is the condition of these two rivers i.e. Mula & Mutha! Again not one agency but the entire city is responsible for deterioration of our rivers as we never considered them ours or else we wouldn’t have polluted, encroached, choked the rivers the way we have done. Time & again many govt agencies as well Central Govt’s Ministers also have been announced giving funding for river front development & many plans also have been made but till today just like the HCMTR not a single kilometre length of any of the river has beautified is the harsh reality! But everybody, even the NGO’s takes great pleasure in discussing this issue & making presentations about how beautiful our rivers can be but just on paper, thus making it a perfect joke for the city!
Domestic Airport for Pune
This joke competes with the last one i.e. Ring Road for 1st place but just there is some space or land supposedly to be reserved or declared for its development & on paper, so it has to settle for 2nd place! Right from why one more airport is needed when we have one already to where we should build the new airport to govt (None other than Hon CM in various govts) declaring location of the airport to forming a body for making of the airport everything has been don’t yet nobody is sure about when this airport will become a reality or where it will be located! And the scene is even being so much developed on Industrial, Educational & Information Technology fronts yet Pune remains a village in comparison to other similar cities in the country or world just because of not having a good airport which will fulfil the need of commuting people to Pune & Punekars to other cities!
The Ring Road
And lastly the 7th wonderful joke, the Ring Road, rather I am not sure to call it as Ring Roads as there are two Ring Roads to my knowledge & if one is cancelled (read as scrapped) I don’t know which one is scrapped & which one is alive, that earns this development as No. 1 wonderful joke for Pune! Just like HCMTR, the thought process behind the Ring Road is to divert all the vehicles which want to travel towards south or north or east coming from west i.e. Mumbai without bothering Punce city & so much this idea fancied our rulers that two ring roads have been declared, the joke started right from there! And then years passed, alignments of the ring roads changed so did the governing bodies for the execution of these roads & changed even the widths of the ring roads also! Today the scene is, just like the airport, nobody knows which ring road is final, from where it will be going, what will be its exact end & start (on paper), what will be its widths & what rules will be applicable around this road for the development & who will be responsible for the execution of the ring road! But the best part is that the ring road is always in the news or say spotlight & that makes the ring road getting No 1 place for wonderful jokes of Pune city!
Friends, I am seriously sorry if I have been rude or biased or criticizing but let me tell you there are many such jokes in our city & I understand that working in a public body, in a country like ours, is not an easy job. And this sharing is not to show how the govt (or the system) is useless but it’s to make aware of the mistakes we have made & improve ourselves. And I am saying “We’ & that includes me also as what is the govt but each of us & unless we all collectively contribute positively to all such developments, they will always end up as a joke, please do mind it!
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Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Sanjay, you have become a good blogger and what you write is very readable but all the examples you mention have failed or likely to fail totally on account of the massive ignorance of our city decision makers. Imagine the scenario if these (most appropriate) projects had been completed as planned. Pune would have been a much better place to live - not for the small minority like us but for all. If I was asked to name ONE reason why they are now in a mess I would say it is on account of an outdated vision
ReplyDelete(more as it was in the 1950s or 1960s) for traffic and transport than as in the 1990s to 2010. We admire the efficient Public Transport in European cities and yet do everything to maim and kill it in our cities by continuing to build infrastructure for personal vehicles. We love the wide footpaths, public spaces and car-free zones in many European cities but are mortally scared to implement even "Pay-and-Park". All we know is to build more and wider roads, flyovers and tunnels through hills - all of which adds to brutalisation and blight of our urban areas, environmental destruction and uncontrolled health threatening pollution
Hi thanks, I agree what you say, had all these developments taken place as planned but then they didnt thats what I wanted to point out! We must keep raising our voice over such issues on every forrum is one way to make our rulers act which I keep doing :)
DeleteNice narration , informative too.
ReplyDelete