Pimpri-Chinchwad, also known as PCMC, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city is about northwest of the historic city of Pune, at an altitude of above sea level. It is the fifth largest city in Maharashtra and the eighteenth largest city in India and the sixteenth largest satellite city in the world by population. The city is located southeast from the state's capital Mumbai. It is one of the most rapidly developing suburban areas in India and has emerged as the third fastest growing city in the country. It is well known for its automotive, IT and manufacturing industry.
History The first reference to Pune region is found in two copper plates dated to 758 and 768 AD, issued by Rashtrakuta ruler Krishna I. The plates are called "Puny Vishaya" and "Punaka Vishaya" respectively. The plates mention areas around Pune such as Theur, Uruli, Khed, Dapodi, and also Bhosari, now part of the city.
Chinchwad is noted for the shrine of Morya Gosavi, a prominent saint of the Ganapatya denomination of Hinduism that worships Lord Ganesha as the Supreme Being or its metaphysical concept of Brahman. Various sources place Moraya Gosavi between the 13th and 17th centuries CE. The inscription on the temple records that its construction began in 1658 CE.
British Raj and partition of India Before the independence of India, Pimpri and Chinchwad were small independent rural settlements on the outskirts of Pune along the Pavana River. Chapekar brothers
Chinchwad is the birthplace of the Chapekar brothers: Damodar Hari (1870–1898), Balkrishna Hari (1873–1899) and Vasudeo Hari, who assassinated W. C. Rand, a British civil service officer and the chairman of the Special Plague Committee of Poona (Pune), on 22 June 1897.
Pimpri Camp Following the partition of India, the Government of India constructed 1,609 residences and laid out around 300 plots on 203 acres of land in the Pimpri area. This area came to be known as Pimpri Camp is one of the 31 refugee camps in Bombay State (present day Maharashtra) set up during the period.
Pimpri-Chinchwad after independence
After Indian independence from the British in 1947. In 1955, Hindustan Antibiotics was set up in Pimpri with the cooperation of WHO and UNICEF with the social objective of providing affordable drugs throughout India. It was inaugurated by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 10 March 1954. Production began in 1955. The establishment of Hindustan Antibiotics in 1954 marked the beginning of industrial development in the Chinchwad, Bhosari, and Pimpri areas. Following which in 1962 MIDC acquired large chunks of land in and around Pimpri-Chinchwad area and provided the necessary infrastructure for new businesses to set up operations. This facilitated the industrial growth of the present day Pimpri Chinchwad city as the industrial town with presence of many national and international automobile industries. The presence of industries provided job opportunities which attracted a large workforce from Maharashtra as well as other states of the country. The in-migration along with the natural growth of population has led to the rapid growth of the city in the last four decades.
Geography
The area within the city limits is widely considered as 'flat' given the altitude varying between 530 and 570 m above sea level. The city is situated approximately at 18° 37' north latitude and 73° 48' east longitude bordering limits of Pune Municipal Corporation on the north and northwest. The historic centre is 15 km from each end. Three rivers Pavana, Mula and Indrayani flow through this area. The rivers originates from the Western Ghats. The base rock found throughout the city is Deccan trap basalt. Building stone is the only commercially important mineral found in the area. In 1970s, due to increased industrialisation on Mumbai–Pune Highway, many villages around the highway were merged to form Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. The earliest villages which were absorbed were Pimpri, Chinchwad, Dapodi, Bhosari etc.
Climate
The city experiences three seasons: summer, monsoon and winter. Typical summer months are February to May with maximum temperatures above 35 °C and reaching up to 42 °C on hotter days. The city receives most of its 722 mm of rainfall in the monsoon months of June to September. The temperature in the winter months of October to January ranges from 12 °C (min) to 30 °C (max), with night temperatures often falling below 10 °C.
Pimpri-Chinchwad has a tropical wet and dry (type Aw) climate, with the characteristics of a hot semi-arid climate (type BSh) climate with average temperatures ranging between . Typical summer months are from mid-March to mid-June, with maximum temperatures sometimes reaching . The warmest month in Pimpri-Chinchwad is May. The city often has heavy dusty winds in May, with humidity remaining high. Even during the hottest months, the nights are usually cool due to Pune's high altitude. The highest temperature recorded was on 30April 1897.
The monsoon lasts from June to October, with moderate rainfall and temperatures ranging from . Most of the of annual rainfall in the city falls between June and September, and July is the wettest month of the year. Hailstorms are not unheard of.
For most of December and January the daytime temperature hovers around while night temperatures are below , often dropping to . The lowest temperature recorded was on 17January 1935.
Cityscape
Demographics
As of the 2011 Census of India, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation area had a population of 1,729,692. The sex ratio was 833 females per 1000 males. About 13% of the population was under seven years of age with a sex ratio of 875 females per 1000 males. Around 8% of the city's population lives in slums. Pimpri-Chinchwad has an average literacy rate of 89.22% (92.41% males; 85.37% females), higher than the national average of 74.04%. The main language spoken in the city is Marathi. There is a significant Sindhi population in Pimpri, which dates to the partition of India in 1947. The neighbourhood has considerable Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu speaking population.Iyengar, A., 2013. Self-Perceptions of Heritage Language Shift among Young Sindhis in Pune (Doctoral dissertation, University of New England Armidale, NSW, Australia).Kalamdani, K., 1993. "Pimpri Chinchwad". Architecture Plus Design, 10(6), p.65.
Map of Pimpri-Chinchwad + Population by areas in Pimpri-Chinchwad Area 2011 2001 Change Bhosari 260,677 154,334 68.9% Chinchwad 196,720 114,897 71.21% Pimpri 170,814 148,508 15.02% Chikhali 138,874 50,703 173.9% Rahatani 134,806 57,308 135.23% Akurdi 108,283 103,743 4.28% Pimple Gurav 100,995 31,489 220.73% Thergaon 100,091 50,734 97.29% Talawade 57,313 26,110 119.51% Nigdi 55,074 55,140 0.12% Sangavi 54,614 47,635 14.65% Wakad 39,913 25,320 57.63% Ravet 29,665 14,647 102.53% Borhadewadi 28,847 6,402 350.59% Dapodi 28,502 24,146 18.04% Dighi 27,770 15,148 83.32% Bhopkel 27,770 14,055 97.58% Pimple Saudagar 25,755 9,581 168.81% Pimple Niklakh 24,924 8,278 201.09% Kiwale 17,779 11,317 57.10% Punawale 17,487 5,989 191.99% Tathawade 17,487 8,984 94.65% Moshi 12,907 6,402 101.61% Mamurdi 11,866 6,426 84.66% Choviswadi 10,326 2,820 266.17% Wadmukhwadi 10,326 4,230 144.11% Charoli 10,326 7,050 46.47% Dudulgaon 7,774 3,201 142.86% Religion
Hinduism is the dominant religion in the city. Other religions with a significant presence include Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The samadhi (resting) places of the two most revered Marathi Bhakti saints, Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram, are at Alandi and Dehu respectively.Sohoni, A., 1998. Temple architecture of the Marathas in Maharashtra The Khandoba Mandir in Akurdi is one the family deity for most Marathi Hindus. The Peshwa era rulers provided endowments to more Maruti temples than to temples of other deities such as Shiva, Ganesh or Vitthal. Even in the present time, there are more Maruti temples than those of other deities. Alandi - The town attracts millions of devotees annually to the resting place or (Samadhi) of the 13th century Marathi Bhakti saint, Sant Dnyaneshwar.Glushkova, Irina. "6 Object of worship as a free choice." Objects of Worship in South Asian Religions: Forms, Practices and Meanings 13 (2014). Dehu - The town on the banks of the Indrayani River is associated with Sant Tukaram Maharaj,Maxine Bernsten (1988), The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra, State University of New York Press, , pages 248-249 the 17th-century poet-saint of the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra.Anna Schultz (2012), Singing a Hindu Nation: Marathi Devotional Performance and Nationalism, Oxford University Press, , page 26 The town is visited by hundreds of thousands of people for the annual Pandharpur Wari when the paduka (symbolic sandals) of the saint are carried to Pandharpur in a palkhi.
Economy
Pune is one of the major industrial hubs in Asia in which the majority contributes from the neighbourhood of Pimpri-Chinchwad. The formation of MIDC in 1962 resulted in a constant process of industrial land acquisition and the creation of required support infrastructure. Since then, there has been a massive influx of several European companies who continue to be keen on setting up manufacturing facilities in PCMC, Pune. It has a rapid growth in terms of the industries and most of the major automobile companies and their headquarters are located here. There is also a rapid growth in the software and IT departments.
Industrialization started in 1954 with the arrival of antibiotics research institute Hindustan Antibiotics Limited (HAL). PCMC, Pune is now home to the Indian operations of major automobile companies like Bajaj Auto, BEL Optronic Devices Limited, Daimler Chrysler, Force Motors, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Kawasaki, Kinetic Engineering, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz India, TATA Motors, Thermax and Volkswagen.
In addition to this, several heavy industries such as Alfa Laval, Atlas Copco, ATS Automation Tooling Systems, Bharat Forge, Bosch, Bridgestone, Finolex Group, Forbes Marshall, Geberit, General Electric, Hyundai Heavy Industries, IKEA, KSB Pumps, Lear Corporation, Lumax, Manitowoc Cranes, New Holland Agriculture, Sandvik, Sany, Schindler Group, Sigma Corporation, SKF, Suzlon, ThyssenKrupp, Varroc have their manufacturing units in the city.
The Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park in Hinjawadi is a ₹60,000 crore (US$8.9 billion) project by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC). The IT Park encompasses an area of about and is home to over 800 IT companies of all sizes.
Government and public services
On 4 March 1970, the villages of Pimpri, Chinchwad, Bhosari and Akurdi merged into a single municipal authority, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Council, Pune. Two years later, the Pimpri Chinchwad New Town Development Authority, Pune was established. Its chief objective was to create a planned environment for the working population in the vicinity of their work place. On 11 October 1982, the Municipal Council was merged with seven surrounding villages and the PCNTDA area to form the a new Municipal Corporation (Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Pune, and it split apart from the Haveli taluka to become the 15th and newest of Pune district's talukas. The size of the city more than doubled in 1997 (from 84.51 km2 to 170.51 km2.) with the addition (in part or in full) of 18 villages located at the periphery of the PCMC as it existed in 1982. Tathawade was added to the city in 2008, bringing the total area of the neighbourhood to 176.41 km2.
Civic Administration