Swargate – The Heart of Pune
Situated in heart of the city, Swargate is of great importance to Pune. Always buzzing with activity in the mornings and evenings, Swargate is an important junction for transport. A start and end point for most of the buses it is popular among several Puneites and even outstation visitors.
Swargate has been a major part of the city for over decades now. The history of the place is dated back to 1940 when the idea of bus service was put forth. But it met lot of opposition from the tanga-walas or horse carriages who were doing a good business then. However in 1941, the first public bus was successfully rolled out. Since then, the bus services have been owned by Pune Municipal Corporation. During the earlier days, they used to ply on two routes, Swargate to Pune station and Swargate to Shivaji Nagar with a bus fare of 1 anna or 6 paise.
In terms of location and its proximity to nearby areas, Swargate is just 10 kilometers away from both, airport and railway station. It connects to most parts of the city with auto-rickshaws, public and private buses plying on these routes regularly. Also buses are easily available to any part of the city from Swargate with the frequency of it being the highest compared to other parts of the city.
Apart from bus services, you will find many stalls offering tea and snacks to the every day travelers. It also has hawkers selling vegetables, chanas, and even obscure things like rat poison that probably may not be available anywhere else.
But somehow when it comes to the globalised and cosmopolitan image of Pune, Swargate does not really paint the right picture. Considering the fact that is the first stop for majority of outstation people getting down at Pune, the chaotic place gives a wrong impression about the city especially for first time visitors.
Full of filth and dirt, you see vendors, travelers and passersby’s throwing garbage on the road while beggars’ are all over the place. If you enter the ST bus stand of Swargate you will be disgusted with the sight of the littering and the nauseating foul smell.
The need of the hour is that efforts need to be made on organizing and aesthetically designing the place to make it look more appealing. Though few changes have been made like the construction of the circle but that is almost negligiable. Also citizens of the city play a major role in keeping the place dirty so they need to clean up their act immediately and be more responsible towards the sanitary conditions of the place.
Swargate has significance and plays a major role in making the city complete. So it’s high time that we help to restore the beauty of city in whole. So let’s take small efforts to keep Swargate the heart of the city clean. After all first impressions are last impressions, so let’s create a long lasting one for Swargate and a good one at that!
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The history of Swargate is just not a few decades old. I believe it goes back to the 19th and possibly 18th century.
The name ‘Swar’ (horse-rider) and Gate indicates somekind of a checkpost. During the British era, many of the important points/checkposts (and some new ones) from the Peshwa era were marked as ‘Gates’ (e.g. Swargate, Pulgate, etc..). I remember reading somewhere that during the Peshwe era, the Swargate area was the southernmost point of Pune and hence a checkpost was in place to monitor traffic in and out of the city. Can someone please validate this (with an actual reference?) Thanks.
High time to shift the bus stop to a more appropriate location and have the best standard BUS STOP. only internal buses should ply from swargate. Outstation buses and stands Should be shifted. The move will help tremendously to improve traffic flow in city,
Clue should be taken from ISBT – Delhi and various South Bus stops.