Businesses in Ramtekdi Industrial Estate are expected to manufacture, employ and attract customers, but the basic infrastructure around them tells another story.
The industrial estate in Hadapsar is home to small and medium manufacturing units, including businesses supplying Indian companies and exporting overseas. For our unit on Lane 1, getting to work means navigating a road broken into deep craters that fill with stagnant water during the monsoon season. Trucks carrying goods, workers on two-wheelers and visitors to the factory, all have to negotiate the same stretch.
The state of the approach has become a problem for the business itself. Customers and export buyers visiting us encounter the damaged road before they reach the factory. Workers have to make the journey every day. Using the premises as an office and workplace becomes harder when the route to the building is waterlogged and littered with waste.
This is difficult to reconcile with the purpose of an industrial estate. Infrastructure should make it possible for businesses to operate, create jobs and grow. Instead, the condition of this lane has been allowed to deteriorate year after year despite repeated complaints to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
Repeated complaints but no action by Pune Municipal Corporation
The first complaint was filed on July 22, 2023, seeking repair and resurfacing of Lane 1. PMC closed it on August 7, recording that temporary murum filling had been carried out. The loose material was put into the potholes, but it washed away within weeks of the rains.
A second complaint was filed on February 8, 2024. It was closed seven days later with the remark that a budget had been demanded for a concrete road on the concerned stretch. No concrete road followed.
On July 12, 2025, the same problem was reported again. The complaint was closed three days later with the remark that work would start when the budget became available. Again, no work followed.
The repeated responses have been particularly frustrating because each one has left the underlying problem untouched. Meanwhile, another monsoon has brought back the same waterlogged craters and difficult driving conditions.
Read more: Potholes, poor lighting and flawed speed bumps: The nightmare on Pune roads
Paying taxes, waiting for services
Our property tax bill for 2026-27 shows a total demand of around ₹8.8 lakh, including around ₹1.7 lakh in Conservancy Tax and around ₹83,000 in Street Tax. Over the four years in which the road complaints have been pursued, we have paid around ₹30 lakh in property tax.
Property tax does not mean an individual business is entitled to a private road. But with the road still in this condition and garbage accumulating along it, it is reasonable to ask what basic civic services are being delivered.
For a manufacturing and export business, the damaged road has dire consequences. Goods vehicles, workers, and visitors must all navigate these poor conditions. Despite our best efforts to maintain a good working environment for our employees and visitors, the condition of the road outside the factory is beyond our control and has a lasting negative effect.
Garbage dumping an added concern
The road is also being used as a dumping ground for wet and food waste.
On August 26 this year, we filed a complaint with the PMC about large quantities of garbage being dumped on the road. A token was assigned to a Sanitary Inspector at the Hadapsar-Manjari office and it remains marked “In Process”. As of September 16, the garbage is still there.
Photographs taken between August 26 and September 5 show fresh piles of wet waste along the lane, including waste dumped against a factory compound wall. The waste attracts flies and stray animals and creates a foul smell around workplaces.
A video recorded on September 4 also documents a person dumping wet garbage on the road.
The combination of stagnant water, broken surfaces and accumulated waste has made the lane increasingly difficult for workers and vehicles to use. It also creates a bad impression when customers or overseas buyers visit the factory.
Read more: Rampant garbage burning reveals gaps in waste management in Pune’s Pimpri-Chinchwad
What PMC needs to address
The immediate request is for PMC to construct a proper concrete or asphalt road with storm-water drainage, clear the accumulated garbage and take action against continued dumping. A definite timeline for the road work is also needed.
There is also a basic question about the PMC’s complaint system. Three complaints about the road were marked “Resolved”, while the fourth complaint, about garbage dumping, remains marked “In Process” even though the garbage is still present.
After years of complaints, the issue is no longer about knowing where to report the problem. The complaint numbers, tax bills, photographs and the condition of the lane provide a record of what has been happening.
All that is being asked now is that the local body respond with some urgency and take responsibility for getting basic civic services delivered to the businesses that operate out of the area.