Pune Real Estate – From Wakad To Thergaon

Anil Pharande, CMD – Pharande Spaces
Before, Wakad was an anonymous village with around 5000 sugarcane, onion and groundnut farmers. In 1983, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) acquired fifty per cent of Wakad. By 1998, PCMC counted Wakad as one of its areas.
Wakad is now the focus of younger, financially fit families that are looking at upgrades and moving into larger, nature-endowed homes on the outskirts of the city. With the increasing congestion of the previously preferred area of Aundh, the neighboring Wakad is Pune’s new hotbed of future growth. Wakad has a perfect location, with close proximity to the Infotech and Biotech Parks at Hinjewadi, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Industrial area, the Mumbai-Bangalore Bypass, the Express Highway to Mumbai and the Balewadi National Sports complex. It is only about 80-90 minutes away from Mumbai, thanks to the Expressway and the Bypass. This makes Wakad an excellent value proposition
The word’s leading automobile giant General Motors Ltd., is setting up a plant in Talegaon, in close proximity to Wakad. Some of the finest schools and higher educational institutions have come up in this area, which is much preferred as a residential destination because of its natural splendor and unpolluted environs. Naturally, property appreciation is showing an increasingly upward trend at Wakad.

The Emergence of Thergaon
Thergaon is yet another of the Pune property market’s rising stars. In a scenario where many of the urban areas within Pune have reached saturation point, it is the suburbia and outlying localities that are receiving increasing attention. Thergaon is amongst the most promising locations among them.
The fact that it is now knows as both the Aundh Annexe and Chinchwad Annexe is significant. Both Aundh and Chinchwad are highly developed in both in terms of residential and commercial real estate, while Chinchwad is a major industrial entity in its own right. Wakad and the Hinjewadi Software Technology Park lie at approximately the same convenient distance from Thergaon along the Pune-Mumbai Highway, bestowing their various benefits as well.
The general location of suburban Aundh is favored for many reasons – all of them of great importance in the property market context. Being unsaturated and relatively free from congestion, localities like Wakad, Baner, Pimple Saudagar, Pimple Nilakh and Thergaon still offer relatively pollution-free environment, spacious living conditions and affordable property rates while retaining the advantages of modernized, developed Aundh.
Moreover, town planning authorities have taken it upon themselves to avoid the more obvious mistakes committed in the over-development of Aundh. The pace of development in the above-mentioned areas is carefully controlled. Only residential and commercial projects that fit well into the overall master plan are allowed. From both an investment and home-buying angle, localities like Thergaon make eminent economic and aesthetic real estate sense.
Great Connections
The Pimpri Chinchwad area features some of the nation’s most prominent industrial entities, and is home to the redoubtable Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation belt. As such, it provides innumerable opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, and counts amongst the most prosperous and progressive areas in the country.
Similarly, Aundh has proliferated in leaps and bounds over the past few years. HOwever, Aundh is now plagued by overcrowding, noise and air pollution as well as unrealistic property rates. The Hinjewadi Software Technology Park is a byword of Pune’s IT Revolution, having attracted major corporations active in this vast and progressive field.
Thergaon offers the ideal solution for home buyers who want the advantage of proximity to both these employment hubs. Thergaon has ready access to the above-mentioned areas, but remains inherently peaceful, free of excesses – and highly affordable. Since these advantages came to light, some significant additions have been made to the landscape at Thergaon:
The Aditya Birla Hospital is a major coup for the future of Thergaon’s standing on the property market. The establishment of this deluxe medical facility there had been proposed in response to the quiet environment and convenient accessibility to Pune’s more centralized parts. As a medical establishment, it rivals the most prominent and respected in Pune and has attracted a lot of attention. In addition, it provides a significant amount of employment and commercial advantages to the immediate area.
It is also no accident that the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has decided to launch its ambitious Sunny Water Sports Centre in Thergaon. The basic functions of this establishment, designed along international guidelines, is to train and discipline youngsters with potential in the refined water sports of canoeing, kayaking and rowing, under highly qualified training instructors and in a carefully monitored environment.
The organizing committee for this undertaking found the Pawna River that flows along Thergaon to be the ideal venue. Apart from a professional training establishment, the SWSC will also serve as a deluxe recreational facility for water sports enthusiasts interested in speedboats, water scooters and so on.
On the industrial front, the well-known Padamjee Paper Mills have contributed in no uncertain way to Thergaon’s overall economy. This sizable organization provides for the blue-collar sector what Hinjewadi does for the white collars – adequate employment, steady economic status and additional interest in the area as a suitable residential abode.
In short, things are definitely looking up at Thergaon. Numerous notable builders are taking an active interest in establishing projects there, and the future of this charming little locality is as bright as that of Wakad, Pimple Nilakh and other outlying areas of Pune.
Anil Pharande is Vice President of CREDAI Pune Metro and Chairman of Pharande  Spaces, a leading construction and development firm that develops township properties in the PCMC area of Pune, India.