Although the Pune airport is getting the ILS, there seems a difference of opinion between Pune MP Suresh Kalmadi and the officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). While Kalmadi on Wednesday said the ILS would be in place in two months, that is before the Commonwealth Youth Games, airport officials beg to differ. "The ILS is scheduled to be installed in December," said J P Mathur, officiating director of the Pune Airport. "The AAI will install the ILS which will help guide the aircraft in bad weather conditions," said Mathur. "It will minimise the rate of flights getting cancelled during winter or monsoon," he added.

ILS facilities are a highly accurate and dependable means of navigating to the runway in adverse weather conditions. When using the ILS, the pilot determines aircraft position primarily by reference to instruments. The system is necessary at the Pune airport as there have been several instances when flights were cancelled owing to poor visibility.

"Airlines have been demanding the installation of the ILS for the last six years. It is high time the airport authority addresses these issues," said a source from the airline circuit. "Pune airport has become international and getting the ILS in place is a basic requirement. When the AAI is making so much money from the airport, is it not their responsibility to fulfill the minimum requirements?" he said.

The AAI reportedly does not even convene meetings of the airport advisory committee on a regular basis, which is necessary according to the norms.

Arguing that the hike in the octroi rates will lead to increase in the prices of goods, Kalmadi said that the proposal was unwarranted and untimely, more so on the eve of the Diwali festival.

Kalmadi said that the Congress will oppose the move to empower the octroi staff to enter shops and godowns of traders.

In Pune City, on Satara Road, BRT is introduced & run successfully(?) as per the corporation.

In fact the traffic, which was goin by say 60Ft road, is made to go by 40-45Ft road. As the road is National Highway, the heavy vehicles are there. Cause of the populated area, other vehicles, two wheelers are also there.

Due to the heavy traffic on the (small-big) road, the other sub roads are also facing traffic-jams.

Our local conveyance system is very poor compared to other cities. That is why there are more two and four wheelers in Pune which in turn cause trafic jam.

Reddy, MP Suresh Kalmadi, Mayor Rajini Tribhuvan, Municipal Commissioner Nitin Kareer, Corporators and members of the public had a ride in the five Volvo buses procured for the BRTs and that plied during the inaugural run.

Currently, the BRT system would be operational only on a 12.2 km long Hadapsar-Swargate-Katraj corridor, to be complete within three months at a cost of Rs 62 crore. More corridors would be added subsequently, covering all the major arterial roads for an extensive Pune-wide BRT network.

The Centre has sanctioned Rs 500 crore for another 50 km for BRTs and the fund for the remaining 50 km of BRTs corridor would also be approved without any delay, the Union Minister said in his speech.

‘‘Pune is the city of the future. Not Hyderabad. Not Bangalore. With our educational institutions, proximity to Mumbai, rapidly flourishing IT industry, Pune is a manageable city; it’s not too difficult to encourage entrepreneurship. The prospects are varied and many.’’ Mr. Kalmadi also urged various social clubs across the city not to be content merely with ‘‘conducting blood donation drives,’’ but go all out to do what they could to face up to the huge challenge of unemployment.

Also present were Vanrai president Mohan Dharia, Municipal Commissioner Nitin Kareer, chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Pune chapter Pradeep Bhargava and Alfa Laval director (corporate finance) Ajay Joshi. Kareer outlined Pune’s rapidly growing economy and the increasing opportunities for youth to make a mark in various sectors. He backed BYST’s initiative to encourage self-employment among young people. Mohan Dharia backed him and stressed that youth employment was the need of the hour.

Application forms for entering the contest will be accepted till February 15. The best three ideas will be awarded in March. The sole criteria for the entering the contest is that you have to be between 18 to 35 years, from an underprivileged background and a citizen of Pune for over two years.

Ashok Borgaonkar, executive engineer of the Pune receiving station said that an inspection team from TUV conducted pre audit of the 14 sub stations in October last followed by random checking in November. The ISO certificate is valid for three years. Extra high voltage sub stations (132 KV and above) come under the Pune receiving station.

Borgaonkar stated that the experts team checked various ISO specifications and procedural aspects like working of the sub stations, maintenance and outages. "We have chalked out detailed procedures which are strictly adhered to maintain the quality of service. Even procedures for shift changes have been worked out which the TUV team checked", he explained.

Borgaonkar said that the receiving station paid special attention to preventive maintenance of the sub stations which helped us minimise the duration of interruption in power supply. Importance was given to keeping a well stocked supply store. "If we save 20 minutes by urgently procuring the required spare, it translates into saving of Rs 5 to Rs 7 lakh", he pointed out.

I came to Pune from Jhansi to join the IT industry here.

I liked the cosmopolitan culture of this city, but one thing that creates a bad sight is the dirty rivers flowing in the city. As you are a visionary, are there any specific plans to revamp the riverside areas and cleansing of the rivers, in a certain time-frame? I'd like to see the riverline in this city as the life line of Pune.

We can come up with many novel ideas that are feasible and commercially viable, to beautify the city. I'd like Pune to compete with some of the most picturesque cities of Europe.

• ‘‘One has to know what growth we are talking about.
• How many flights would land?
• What would be the air traffic?
• Operating 24 hours with nothing happening on the ground will be a waste of expenditure on provisioning of landing services,’’ he told reporters in Pune on Saturday. ‘‘It takes money whether we operate a civilian or a military aircraft. The best is to economise services in an optimal way by gauging requirement (traffic),’’ he said. After all, the passenger carriers would have to foot the bill for such services while the cost would, in turn, be passed on to the traveller, he added.

The watch hours — when landing and take-off is allowed — are from 8 am to 8 pm only. The limit to flight operations due to this is seen as a prime hindrance to Pune’s growth as a favoured destination for investment. The industry, in particular, has been rooting for round-the-clock flight operations.

A fortnight back, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, while citing his meeting with Krishnaswamy, had said that efforts were on to extend the watch hours on a 24-hour basis.

Secretary of the Confederation of central government employees and workers association in Pune, Harish Radhakrishnan, expressed satisfaction at the development and said that the actual hike was still not known. “We are yet to get a copy of the government circular," he said, adding that the federation was hopeful that house rent allowance would increase from the present 15 per cent to 30 per cent of basic pay.

Editor's Note: We request our readers to share their opinion with us regarding the issues raised below. We will bring all the discussion and comments to the notice of Mr. Kalmadi soon.

Can we schedule Pune-to-Lonavela or Pune-to-Talagoa local trains every 30 minutes? Also can the Long-Route train be made to stop at Chinchwad?

If you do it not only Pune city, but all people from PCMC area will support you Mr. Kalmadi ... I know when our government is also at Centre this is easily achievable.

Don't you think this will make people life faster, and control population growth of pune which is just increasing pollution. I am sure this will be a boon to people, life, and industry in PCMC.

Best Wishes.

The regal procession of the prestigious Dagdusheth Halwai Ganesh began from its newly-built shrine near Faraskhana around 9 am. Then the other large- pandal Ganesh idols slowly found their way onto richly-decorated chariots for the inaugural procession. Ushered by disciplined school dhol-tasha bands, horsemen and flag-bearers, the procession wound through the town and reached its giant pandal, bedecked with thousands of tiny lights, at Belbaug chowk. The lights were turned on only in the evening by police commissioner D N Jadhav.

The home Ganesh ceremonies were marked with

• Early morning pujas and vedic chants,
• the chorus of artis ,
• the clash of cymbals and
• the aroma of ghee-laden, steaming-hot modaks

By the evening, the processions began blocking whatever roads were free of pandals and Punekars were finally reminded that Ganesh had arrived and that they had better plan for traffic delays.

Our hills are becoming slums. See for example Parvati.

Day by day the hill is being choked up so much that we can not claim to have a good historical temple there. In the Paravti region from Dandekar Pool to Sarasbaug Road it is so congested because of illegal houses and illegal parking.

Please do something about these. Let our Pune remember Sureshbai Kalmadi as creator of a beautiful Pune.