The Pune Grand Tour concluded on Friday with New Zealand’s Luke Mudgway emerging as the winner. For the organisation of this event, Pune underwent a visual transformation through installations, wall art and graffiti, redesigned dividers and clear signage. However, for the event, citizens had to face inconvenience as several roads were closed on working days.
As per a video going viral on X (formerly Twitter), an ambulance was held up for 20 minutes on Prabhat Road due to the cycling race. The post read, “Horrible scenes in #Pune on Prabhat Road for the @PuneGrandTour!! Ambulance stuck, patient critical, no disaster response planned. Ambulance held for 20 minutes! Shame on the administration for such poor planning! Share widely!” In another post, the user added, “@UCI_cycling please think twice before giving #Pune or #India any international event. The common man suffers when basic emergency care services aren’t planned! We will never know if the patient made it after such a huge delay!”
Meanwhile, netizens blasted the administration over its management.
“This is shameful. I seriously hope that the patient is surviving,” a user wrote.
“Such races should be conducted only where there is an alternate route to reach places, not in such a congested area,” another user commented.
“The entire conduct of the @PuneGrandTour needs to be investigated by the @PMOIndia!! Funding, approvals, planning, communication – everything reeks of gross negligence and malicious intent to push through the event, come what may!! This is not how international events are done!” a third user stated.
“We love to host grand events, but most turn out to be chaotic disasters like this or become opportunities for corruption, like the Games event in Delhi in 2010. All it does is expose our broken infrastructure, poor planning and terrible civic sense,” a fourth user noted.
Check out the reactions below:
