Pune Grand Tour 2027: PMC to Upgrade 136 km of Roads, Remove Over 225 Speed Breakers
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is upgrading roads across a 136 km route within its jurisdiction for the Pune Grand Tour (PGT) 2027, an international Category 2 cycling competition scheduled from January 26 to 31, 2027. The six-stage race will cover a total distance of 1,088 km across Pune district.
The civic body is improving riding conditions along 84 km of newly added routes and repairing another 52 km of roads used in the previous edition. The work along the PMC route has been divided into four packages, with inspections covering Packages 3 and 4.
The road improvement works include resurfacing, repairing damaged footpaths, constructing new footpaths where required, repairing and repainting road dividers, roadside beautification, and installing standardised traffic signs and road markings.
PMC will temporarily remove between 225 and 250 or more speed breakers along the designated route, along with raised pedestrian crossings. Road rumblers that could obstruct cyclists will also be chiselled out. The speed breakers will be reconstructed immediately after the event in accordance with Indian Road Congress guidelines. These works will be carried out through existing civic maintenance contracts without requiring a separate budget allocation.
PMC City Engineer Aniruddha Pawaskar has directed all agencies to complete ongoing utility digging and trenching along the route by October 31. No further road-digging permissions will be granted on the designated route after the deadline.
The work involves civic departments responsible for water supply, sewerage, drainage and electrical lines, along with Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd, MSEDCL, Dinesh Engineering, Police CCTV Allied Co. and the Integrated Command and Control Centre. Standard operating procedures are being enforced for trench restoration, backfilling and manhole repairs.
More than 2,000 drainage and utility chambers and manholes are also being raised and levelled to match the road surface, with the aim of improving safety for cyclists and other road users.
The preparations were reviewed at a meeting in the PMC Standing Committee Hall chaired by Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram. Pune District Collector Jitendra Dudi, Additional Municipal Commissioners Prajit Nair and Omprakash Divate, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manoj Patil, Pawaskar and Road Department Chief Engineer Rajesh Bankar were among those present. Joint inspections of the route have also been conducted by civic engineers, contractors and project consultants.
Beyond the cycling competition, PMC is planning a citywide network of 75 km of continuous cycle tracks, with a second phase intended to expand the network to around 136 km. The initial layout was prepared by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and aligns with the Pune Cycle Plan and Comprehensive Cycle Master Plan.
Pune, historically known as the city of bicycles, had developed cycle tracks alongside its Bus Rapid Transit System routes around a decade ago. However, many became unusable or deteriorated because of missing links, vehicle parking, hawker encroachments, road widening and footpath construction.
A study by Pune-based NGO Parisar found that 11% of existing cycle tracks were in good condition, 61% were in moderate condition and 28% were in poor condition.
Parisar’s Ranjit Gadgil recommended immediately repairing and upgrading 35 km of existing tracks through minor modifications, connecting missing links and improving signage, road markings, painted lanes and protective edges before building fully segregated tracks. He also recommended prioritising track repairs before undertaking encroachment removal.
