Pune Infra Watch: PMRDA begins work on integrated flyover on Ganeshkhind road
The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) has begun construction work on the double-decker integrated flyover on the Ganeshkhind road, more than two years after the flyovers at the Pune University junction.
“The construction of the elevated metro rail route from Hinjewadi to Shivajinagar is in progress. The integrated flyover from Pune University junction to Ganeshkhind road is part of the double-decker flyover of the metro rail. The flyover work is starting from the main junction of Pune University. The safety barricades on Ganeshkhind road have been widened for the project work,” said PMRDA metropolitan commissioner Rahul Mahiwal.
How an indie bookseller’s personal touch has seen Solanki Bookseller thrive in Pune’s Camp
After working as a commissioned seller of books for a while in the late 1980s, Kanhaiyalal Solanki decided to start his own venture. With two bags filled with books, Kanhaiyalal started a bookstall under his name at Pune’s Moledina Road, Camp, in 1989. Three-and-a-half decades later, Kanhaiyalal and his son Anand cater to the city’s rich community of avid readers with a myriad collection of fiction and non-fiction books spread across genres, magazines, graphic novels, comics and collector’s box sets. But it is Anand’s reader-specific recommendations and warm conversations that see loyal patrons returning to Solanki Bookseller despite the multitude of options available online
The Pune city police have arrested a 32-year-old teacher for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old girl student during a physical training session.
The incident took place Friday at a school located on the outskirts of Pune. An FIR in the case has been registered at a police station in Pune city Saturday.
monthly limit of free stories.
with an Express account.
According to the FIR, the teacher molested the girl who is a student of Class VII. The family members of the girl later approached the police with a complaint. Read more
Pune Rambo Circus put up a spectacular show on Sunday near Mundhwa railway bridge as the show opened for 45 days. The breathtaking acts included wheel of death, acrobatics, sollow sward, and other aerial acts.
Watch Express photos by Arul Horizon
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said the Ministry of Railways has accorded "in principle approval" for the Pune-Nashik high-speed rail project.
Fadnavis made the announcement after a meeting with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi. "I thank the Railway minister for granting in-principle approval to the Pune-Nashik high-speed railway project," the Maharashtra deputy chief minister said. He added that officials from Maharashtra and the railway ministry will make a technical appraisal of the project and then take the proposal to the Union Cabinet for approval.
"Pune and Nashik are important cities of Maharashtra economically and culturally. It would be our endeavour to provide rail connectivity to these two cities," Vaishnaw said. (PTI)
Union finance minister’s announcement to increase the national calamity contingent duty (NCCD) on cigarettes to 16 per cent in the Union Budget 2023-24. Appreciative of the government’s decision to make cigarettes less affordable, they are now making an appeal to increase tax on beedis and smokeless tobacco products as well.
While presenting the Union Budget in Parliament on February 1, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, proposed to revise NCCD on specified cigarettes upwards by about 16 per cent.
“We welcome the step. The increase in NCCD on cigarettes though nominal has raised our hopes that the government will consider looking at increasing cess on all tobacco products including beedi and smokeless tobacco in the next GST Council meeting,” said Varsha Deshpande, convenor, Women and Child Rights Organisation (WCRO). Read more
Soon after the BJP announced Hemant Rasane as its candidate for the Kasba bypoll in Maharashtra on Saturday afternoon, the party rushed one of its top leaders to the residence of deceased MLA Mukta Tilak to placate the family which had been gearing up to contest the seat.
BJP minister Girish Bapat interacted with the family and urged them to continue working for the party. Though jolted by the denial of ticket, the Tilak family has agreed to support the party. In a bid to ease the situation, Mukta’s son Kunal Tilak has been elevated as a party spokesperson. Kunal is also the editor of the party’s Yuva Morcha magazine. Read more
Putting an end to speculation on whether it would give candidature to a family member of deceased sitting legislator Mukta Tilak, who belongs to the family of freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak, in its bastion of Kasba, the BJP on Saturday nominated experienced party worker Hemant Rasane as its candidate for the bypoll necessitated due to the untimely demise of the MLA.
Rasane is a three-time corporator of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and was elected in 2002, 2012 and 2017. He was also elected chairman of the PMC standing committee in the last four years. Read more
French-Italian opera singer and actor Harmonie Deschamps believes in finding links between European and Indian cultures – through music, verses, fables and folk stories. Deschamps, who co-founded the Indo-European artist group Lilanoor Ensemble will present ‘Buried Treasures’, musical tales from India and Europe.
The musical theatre performance will be presented in the city at NM Wadi Amphitheatre at 7 pm Sunday (February 5). The musical show showcases four stories carefully handpicked from the collective Indo-European traditional literature- Harisarman from Panchatantra tales, The Goose and the Golden Egg by Jean de Lafontaine and The snake and the golden coin from Panchatantra tales, Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen and Guptadhan – The Hidden Treasure by Rabindranath Tagore. Read more
No trip in Pune is complete without someone mentioning at least once, “let’s go for a trek this weekend”. Trekking is hugely popular in Pune and Mumbai, with local trekking groups spreading fast to monetise this growing obsession with the hills.
Many offer treks to the famous hill forts around the city but there are lesser-known trekking circuits around the city. These test your endurance levels while rewarding you with walks on pristine trails under full-moon and starlit skies. Here are some of the trekking circuits around the city which you must experience at least once. Read more
The Pune Traffic police cautioned citizens to brace for further traffic jams at the Pune University junction and connecting roads in the coming days owing to work on the next phase of Pune Metro and announced additional traffic diversions Sunday night.
Over the last week, as the preparations for the next phase of Pune Metro have started, the traffic in this cluster has seen some of the worst traffic jams in recent history, according to officials. These traffic jams forced all stakeholder agencies to swing into action, hold back-to-back meetings and field visits and put more traffic diversions in place in addition to the existing circular one-way traffic for the last year. Read more
The stage is set for Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led BRS party to hold its first meeting outside the state at Nanded in Maharashtra on Sunday.
Rao is expected to reach Nanded at 12.30 pm and address the meeting titled “BRS Charikala Sabha” at 1.30 pm , CMO sources said today.
He will garland the Chhatrapati Shivaji statue near the venue-Gurudwara Sachkhand Mela Maidan, Hingoli Gate, and later offer prayers at historical Gurdwara, they said.
He will also address a press conference after the meeting.
Rao had recently said that the BRS' slogan in the run-up to 2024 general elections would be ‘Ab ki baar kisan sarkar' (This time, a government for farmers).
Maharashtra continues to witness the highest number of farmers' suicides despite being one of the richest States in the country.
According to political analysts, Rao's speech would be centered around farmers' issues in the Nanded meeting. (PTI)
Prithvi Konanur’s Kannada film Hadinelentu (Seventeeners) starts on a note of dread. Two teenagers are creating a video of their lovemaking in an empty college classroom and the audience knows that this can only end badly.
Films such as Dev D and Masaan have delved into the intersection of sex and digital technology over the years. But Konanur draws out the themes of class and social-caste identities as the film, the only Indian film in the World Competition section of the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF), unfolds. Read more
At least 53 people were detained during a party at a farmhouse in the hill town of Lonavala, police said on Saturday.
The police had received information about loud music being played at a party in the farmhouse on Friday night, following which they raided the premises, an official said.
The police found people dancing obscenely at the party and detained them, and also seized the sound system from the premises, he said.
A case has been registered against 53 people under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Maharashtra Police Act. (PTI)
he BJP Parliamentary Board Saturday nominated Ashwini Jagtap, wife of deceased BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap, as the party candidate for the Chinchwad assembly bypoll. Following the announcement, the Jagtaps quickly dispelled speculations of a rift within the family, with ticket aspirant Shankar Jagtap, brother of Laxman Jagtap, saying he will work wholeheartedly for the victory of his ‘Vahini’ (sister-in-law).
Shankar Jagtap said: “I am happy that Vahini has been nominated by the party.”
Asked whether there was a rift within the family as to who should contest, Shankar Jagtap said: “It was all speculation, there is no rift in the family. I will work wholeheartedly for the victory of my Vahini.” Earlier, he had told this paper that he would abide by the party’s decision. Read more.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar and some others in the party had forewarned then-Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about a possible rebellion in his outfit Shiv Sena, but the latter was confident his MLAs will not take any extreme step, senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar has said.
A section of MLAs of the undivided Shiv Sena, led by then-Cabinet minister Eknath Shinde, had rebelled against Thackeray's leadership in June last year, leading to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government. The rebel MLAs then teamed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a government under Shinde's leadership.
Ajit Pawar, asked by Lokmat Editor Sanjay Awate on Friday during an interview if those in the MVA government had any inkling about a rebellion brewing in the Shiv Sena, said they had clues about such a possibility much in advance and Thackeray was informed about it. (PTI)
A lone protagonist stands on the stage, reciting a poem that he had written on revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh and Karna, one of the central figures in the Mahabharata, in his childhood. He is Sanket, a man full of ideas about resilience, perseverance, and sacrifice that have been inspired by the stories of the two heroes he has heard since childhood. But, what happens when Sanket confronts despair and dilemmas of his own?
The solo play, Adhura, to be performed by Bengaluru-based Our Theatre Collection at Sudarshan Rangmanch on February 5, follows Sanket as he moves ahead in life and tries to relate his journey with that of Karna and Bhagat Singh. The conflict arises when the reasons behind his choices are not in sync with the choices that were in front of Karna and Bhagat Singh. Read more.
After working as a commissioned seller of books for a while in the late 1980s, Kanhaiyalal Solanki decided to start his own venture. With two bags filled with books, Kanhaiyalal started a bookstall under his name at Pune’s Moledina Road, Camp, in 1989. Three-and-a-half decades later, Kanhaiyalal and his son Anand cater to the city’s rich community of avid readers with a myriad collection of fiction and non-fiction books spread across genres, magazines, graphic novels, comics and collector’s box sets. But it is Anand’s reader-specific recommendations and warm conversations that see loyal patrons returning to Solanki Bookseller despite the multitude of options available online. Read more
BJP high command in Maharashtra finally announced the candidate names for Kasba and Pimpri Chinchwad bypoll. Ashwini Jagtap, wife of Laxman Jagtap shall contest bypolls from Pimpri CHinchwad as BJP has given her the opportunity over brother Shankar Jagtap. In Kasba however, Shailesh and Kunal Tilak have been unable to secure candidature after the seat was vacated post death of ex-Mayor Mukta Tilak and the candidature has instead been given to experienced partyman Hemant Rasane.
In a bid to increase revenue, the authorities of a village in Maharashtra's Latur district have decided to provide accident insurance coverage of Rs 10 lakh to those villagers who completely pay off their tax charged by the local panchayat.
This novel decision was taken during a gram sabha meeting held at Panchincholi village located in Nilanga tehsil on Friday.
Panchincholi sarpanch (village head) Geetanjali Hanumante presided over the meeting, where her predecessor Shrikant Salunkhe proposed a resolution that personal accident insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh will be provided to the villagers on 100 per cent payment of the panchayat tax. (PTI)
A constable from the police force in Maharashtra's Sangli district, who was recently arrested for allegedly raping a Bangladeshi girl, has now been suspended, officials said.
He was arrested after a case was registered against him at Vishrambaug police station in Sangli. Following his arrest, a local court remanded him in police custody.
Sangli Superintendent of Police Dr Basavraj Teli suspended the constable on Thursday, the officials said. (PTI)
After suffering heavy losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the Indian floriculture industry finds itself in a far more comfortable position at present. The industry now feels that it would be able to approach the pre-pandemic export figures soon as both domestic and international markets have picked up significantly.
The Valentine’s Day rush results in a significant demand for cut roses which are exported around the globe. Talegaon, near Pune, is an important growth centre for flowers with many in the region exporting flowers. Read more