Pune's famed Hinjawadi IT Park (Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park) is in the news again after reports of over 30 IT companies moving out of the area due to traffic congestion went viral. The area houses lakhs of IT workers and is a major IT hub in the country after Bengaluru.
Techies from all over the country come to Pune in search of jobs. The area not only provides jobs to techies but also to several people who provide services to them. However, did you know that the space where the IT park came up in the 1990s was actually marked for a cooperative sugar factory?
NCP chief Sharad Pawar recently re-shared the story behind the origin of the tech park in Pune. Speaking at a party event in Pune, he said that he had managed to convince local leaders to make way for the then proposed IT (information technology) park instead of a cooperative sugar factory that was to come up at the location for which a foundation stone was also laid.
Pawar said, “A sugar factory was to come up at the site and I was the chief guest who even laid the foundation stone. By the time I finished my speech as the chief guest, the members of the society got angry when I said the factory wouldn’t come up here despite laying the foundation stone.”
Lands were given as compensation
He added that he then convinced leaders that the government had planned to set up an IT park and Hinjawadi was the most suitable land for the purpose.
He said the Maval farmers got compensatory land elsewhere for the factory, which was eventually built and operated successfully.
However, the report of industries moving out of the area due to traffic has led to a political war of words in the state.
Approximately 1 lakh cars ply in Hinjawadi every day, with each car staying on the road for one and a half to two hours due to heavy traffic. As a result, fuel worth lakhs of rupees is being wasted. Additionally, companies lose 25 dollars per hour. Consequently, 37 companies have moved out of the city, and more are about to leave, the Hinjawadi Industries Association told the channel.
