Community Voices: Addressing Traffic Woes in Pune's Peth Area

The Peth area in the heart of Pune is a hub of historical and religious significance, but it is increasingly challenged by vehicular congestion and navigational difficulties. As an organisation we are committed to sustainable development, and we recognize the urgent need for efforts focused on reducing congestion and pollution in the core city.

To address these pressing issues, we have partnered with the Centre for Environment and Education (CEE). The challenges surrounding congestion and pollution affect not only residents but also various stakeholders, including hawkers, shopkeepers, rickshaw drivers, and educational institutions. To gain better insights into these concerns, we conducted focus group discussions with auto-rickshaw drivers and representatives from local schools and colleges.

Proper Road Design Can Save Trees on Ganeshkhind Road

Impact of Road Widening

As traffic levels soar in the city, roads get congested, leading to demands from various quarters - the traffic police, elected representatives, PMC planners and engineers and even the public - for road widening. Road widening is routinely marked in the Development Plan, in anticipation of growth in traffic. Eventually budgets are allocated and once land acquisition procedures (both time-consuming and very expensive) are completed, the widening of the road commences. There are two fundamental issues with this approach though - without any restraint on vehicle growth, soon the widened road also gets congested. And in the process of road widening, trees - often old and big trees along the roadside - get cut in the hundreds. In fact the road department is responsible for most tree cutting in the city. More traffic and less trees is a double recipe for increasing pollution, GHG emissions and heat island effects.

Transport experts have long dismissed road widening as a way to solve congestion. Instead they recommend promoting walking, cycling and public transport and vehicle restraint measures.

Parisar participates in 3rd World Youth Assembly and 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety

The purpose of this conference was to assess the progress made in implementing the Global Plan 2021-2030 during its initial five-year period, to generate support for the new vision of safe and sustainable mobility. From 15th to 20th February 2025, global leaders united for safer roads worldwide. Ministers from numerous countries came together to address pressing challenges and solutions for safer roads, pivotal in shaping the future of global road safety.

🚦 India reaffirmed its commitment: Road safety is a mission & non-negotiable!

Sh. Ajay Tamta, Minister of State, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) shared India's commitment to Global Road Safety, joined the plenary on the future of #RoadSafety—linking it to climate, sustainable transport & emerging mobility trends and a high-level panel discussion on Road Safety Solutions Emerging from South and South-east Asia, organized by SaveLife Foundation in collaboration with MoRTH and WHO.

Capacity building on reuse systems and hands-on workshop on inclusive street design at a national level meeting in Arunachal Pradesh

National level meeting with the street vendors and their leaders was conducted from February 15 to 18, 2025 in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. A total of 80 participants attended the event, engaging in discussions and activities focused on the issue of single-use plastic (SUP) and its detrimental impact on both the environment and livelihoods.

The daylong session began with an interactive icebreaker activity designed to gauge the participants' knowledge about the types of single-use plastics and their broader implications. This served as a refresher from the September 2024 National meeting, reinforcing previous discussions on the importance of reducing plastic waste.

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About Parisar & history

Parisar is a civil society organization working on lobbying and advocacy for sustainable development. Since its formation in the early 1980s, Parisar has worked in a diverse set of fields such as preservation of heritage, protection of urban bio-diversity, and sustainable agriculture. Since about the turn of the 21st century, its work focuses mainly on sustainable urban transport, since it recognizes that unsustainable transport policies and systems are the foremost threat to urban environment and quality of life. 

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What's new

'South Asia Cycles Workshop' conference in Delhi brings about discussions on the past, present and future of cycling

At the two-day conference held in Delhi on 22nd and 23rd November 2024, ‘The South Asia Cycles Workshop’ was co-organized by IIT Delhi, University of Chicago, Brandeis University, Shiv Nadar University and TRIP Centre (Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre). Participants came from different cities in India, from Nepal and Ghana. Ranjit Gadgil, Programme Director, Parisar was invited to contribute to the panel discussion on 'Infrastructure, Planning and Design'. Watch the clip below.

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Interesting reads

Unified DCPR is outrageous: It will destroy liveability of Pune City

India is on path toward rapid urban population growth leading to unmanaged metropolitan cities and other urban areas. Urban local bodies are unable to cope up with the pressure of urbanisation and unplanned urban growth problems continue to remain in all cities. If we have to define Indian urban landscape, it is a “bizarre ad-hoc juxtaposition of suburbs, gaothans, hills, slums and shanty areas, clutters of guthewari structures, streets with all activities, congested streets full of two wheelers and cars - which have turned into densely populated squalid habitats – in between surrounded by glittering buildings and gated communities.”

Floor Space Index (FSI): A Detrimental Provision in the UDCPR

The Government of Maharashtra recently notified the Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR) which are going to have a very big impact on cities. The UDCPR is being implemented in cities like Pune without assessing its impact. The current trajectory of urban development, with the focus on real estate development, is the major reason for non-defined urban form and bad urban design followed in Indian cities. 

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Plastic Free July and its relevance throughout the year


Landfills are representative of our misplaced development priorities.
Photographer: Jonathan Torgovnik/AJWS | Organisation: SWaCH Pune Seva Sahakari Sanstha.

“Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution”. The movement was started in 2011 by “Rebecca Prince-Ruiz (the founder of the Plastic Free Foundation) and a small team in local government in Western Australia, and is now one of the most influential environmental campaigns in the world.” This excerpt from the Plastic Free July website shows that globally, people acknowledge the plastic crisis as well as want to be part of the solution. And why not, as the age we live in is being called the plasticene1 and plastic pollution has become all pervasive. Plastic is found on top of the highest mountains2, deepest of trenches in the ocean3, while plastic (microplastic and nano plastic) has been found even inside human placenta4, blood5, lungs6 and testicles7. Scientists have discovered that micro- and nanoplastics exist in every environmental compartment — from freshwater to soil and air — and in thousands of species, including humans8. A 2019 WWF report suggests that we consume an average of 5g or a debit card size of plastic a week. Toxics Link in 2024, found microplastic in all 10 samples of salt and 5 samples of sugar they studied in the Indian market. Similar studies in the past have shown tap water, bottled water and other food and beverages to contain microplastic. Microplastic has become part of our daily food and drinks.

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Parisar in news

Parisar felicitated as the best NGO in the field of Road Safety in Maharashtra

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) celebrated Road Safety week from 11 to 17 January 2023 across India.

Parisar was felicitated as a best NGO working in the field of road safety in Maharashtra. This award ceremony was held in Mumbai on 11th January 2023.

The event was organised by the Transport Department, Maharashtra State and Mr. Sandeep Gaikwad (Senior Program Associate) represented Parisar to receive the award.

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वाहतूक कोंडी एक गंभीर समस्या!

The following article in Marathi highlights the issue of traffic congestions in the cities across India. It talks about the reasons, impacts, issues of traffic congestion and solutions to resolve it. 

The shortened version of this article was published in Sakal media on 10th October 2022.

वाहतूक कोंडी एक गंभीर समस्या!

भारतातील सर्वच शहरे विशेषत पुणे, मुंबई, दिल्ली, चेन्नई, बंगळूर वाहतूक कोंडीने त्रस्त आहेत. वाहतूक कोंडी ही समस्या दिवसेंदिवस वाढत उग्र रूप धारण करीत आहे. सण-समारंभ, मंत्री महोदयांचे मोर्चे-दौरे, यात अधिक भर घालतात. काही दिवसांपूर्वी पुणे शहरात खुद्द आमदारांना आपल्या शासकीय वाहनातून उतरून वाहतूक सुरळीत करून वाहतूक कोंडीतून स्वतःची सुटका करून घ्यावी लागली. कोणत्याही शहरात पोलिस प्रमुखाची नव्याने नेमणूक झाल्यास नागरिक, संघटना, पत्रकार पोलिस प्रमुखास पहिला प्रश्न विचारतात तो म्हणजे वाहतूक समस्या सोडवण्यास काय उपाययोजना कराल?

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