STUDY AREA

Pune, the seventh largest city in India and second in Maharashtra, succeeded only by Mumbai is also known as the 'Detroit of India'. The Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) spreads across approximately 1,340 sq.km, consisting of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Pune Cantonment (PC), Khadki Cantonment (KC) and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the latter being the Area of Interest for this project.

The figure below shows the new boundary of PMC, as of 2011 Census Reports.

The low cost of living and population density, as compared to Mumbai, has made it a migration hotspot both within and outside the state of Maharashtra. This has caused quite a boom in the development of the area. This sudden surge in population and development have, however, proved to be taking quite a toll on still unsatisfactory roads. The underdeveloped transportation network of the PMC area, and Pune as a whole, have been littered with heavy construction equipment. To keep up with the sudden expansion of PMC, land is being parcelled out for industrial and residential settlements. The flocks of residents have contributed to the massive rise in traffic on the diminishing roads. While highways and flyovers are in the process of being built, the current scenario has seen this undesirable ratio of road traffic to road area available leading to a considerable hike in Road Accidents in the past year alone! Clearly, the need of the hour in Pune is Road Safety!

Times of India article stressing the importance of Road Safety in Pune:-