As air pollution, traffic deaths and travel times climb, Pune’s dream of a sustainable transport future is faltering. With vehicle registrations nearly matching its population, the city is fast becoming a cautionary tale of urban planning gone awry.
Harish Kulkarni, a 38-year-old IT professional from Pune, spends over three hours a day commuting to and from work by car. His office is 20 kilometres away, yet the journey now takes him around 90 minutes each way.
“It used to take 40 minutes before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kulkarni recalled. “But traffic congestion, coupled with poor infrastructure and ongoing metro construction, has turned it into a punishing drive. I have been doing the same journey for the past 10 years, but the infrastructure development has not kept pace with the increase in vehicle numbers.”
The daily grind has taken a financial toll. “My maintenance costs have increased by 30 per cent and I now refill my 35-litre tank every 15 days instead of monthly,” he said. Kulkarni eventually switched to an electric vehicle (EV), which saves him nearly Rs 10,000 a month in fuel and servicing costs. But it’s not a complete solution. “I’ve saved on fuel, but not on time. And not everyone can afford an EV.”
He is not alone. Hinjewadi, a major IT hub in Pune, is home to an estimated half a million IT professionals, many of whom endure similarly long and costly commutes.
Traffic snarls are now routine not just in Hinjewadi, where Kulkarni works, but also across the city — including in Kharadi, on the opposite end of the urban sprawl.
Pune metropolitan region — including Pimpri-Chinchwad — is projected to house around 7.5 million people in 2025, according to World Population Review.
The number of registered vehicles has crossed 6.5 million, based on data from the two Regional Transport Offices. Pune has the highest number of registered vehicles in the state, followed by Pimpri-Chinchwad. With nearly one vehicle per person, traffic congestion is significantly affecting the quality of travel for residents.
Transport department data shows that vehicle registrations in Pune have nearly doubled across all categories in the last five years. Two-wheeler registrations rose to 192,933 in 2024 from 96,311 in 2020. Cars and other light motor vehicles nearly doubled too, to 72,371 from 37,330 over the same period. Three-wheeler registrations more than tripled, to 14,291 from 4,942.
Pimpri-Chinchwad mirrored this trend, with two-wheeler registrations rising to 117,708 in 2024 from 65,952 in 2020 and car registrations going to over 48,000 from 25,664. Three-wheelers increased from 3,094 to 7,426.
Pune is now the third slowest city in India, after Kolkata and Bengaluru, according to mobility metrics website TomTom Traffic Index. Commuters spend an average of 33 minutes and 22 seconds to cover just 10 km, amounting to nearly a full week per year stuck in traffic.
“Before the pandemic, many of us used to carpool,” said Sandeep Murkute, another software professional. “But with the shift to hybrid work and more flexible schedules, people are now more comfortable using their own vehicles.”
RTO data confirms a post-pandemic spike. Pune recorded 167,327 new vehicle registrations in 2021, which surged by 51 per cent to 253,663 in 2022. In 2023, registrations increased by a further 15 per cent to 292,338.
Pimpri-Chinchwad added 149,507 new vehicles in 2022, up 39 per cent from 2021 and a further 177,384 in 2023, marking a 19 per cent rise.
Despite multiple policy attempts, public transport in Pune has failed to keep up. “Pune is a good example of how not to design urban transport,” said Ranjit Gadgil, programme director at Parisar, an NGO that works on mobility governance.
The city administration has experimented with various methods to introduce public transport, but the rise in vehicular traffic and poor implementation of public transport are pushing the city towards a transport crisis, he claimed.
Pune introduced India’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in 2006, but it never took off at scale. “Lack of operational monitoring, poor feedback mechanisms, encroachments and badly managed shelters undermined the project,” said Gadgil.
A 2017 bicycle plan by Pune Municipal Corporation aimed to promote cycling. But it was not implemented to its full potential, aside from some road infrastructure development in parts of the city. According to the plan, the city once had an impressive 50 per cent share of bicycle use as a mode of transport in 1981. It aimed to increase cycling by 23 per cent through the introduction of a public bicycle sharing system.
But the plan fizzled and cycling declined sharply to 7 per cent by 2008 and further to 3 per cent by 2017. Still, it represents a significant share when compared to the 4 per cent of trips made by auto-rickshaws and 5.5 per cent by cars, the report noted.
A street survey found that 79 per cent of non-cyclists were willing to switch if adequate infrastructure were provided. But smart bike-sharing companies folded within a few years and the administration has since reversed many of the modest gains by shrinking or removing cycling tracks, Gadgil alleged.
The Pune Metro, operational since March 2022, now runs 33.1km of track with another 33.5km under construction. However, it has failed to attract expected ridership. The Pune Metro Rail Project’s Detailed Project Report (DPR) estimated daily ridership at 600,000 for 2021; actual numbers are under 30 per cent of that. On June 29, 2025, ridership stood at 170,904, according to the project website.
Buses tell a similar story. According to the 2024 Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP), Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) has a fleet of 2,030 buses out of which 1,880 are operational, with 473 electric and around 90 per cent running on CNG. It serves 367 routes with over 20,000 trips a day.
Ridership has fallen to 1.06 million daily passengers by April 2025 from 1.09 million in 2024 and 1.14 million in April 2023. The number of operational buses dropped to 1,563 in 2025 from 1,580 in 2024 and 1,637 in 2023. The CMP estimated Pune needs at least 6,500 buses to meet demand — more than five times the current operational fleet.
Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs benchmarks recommend 60 buses per 100,000 population, meaning Pune needs around 4,200 just to meet the minimum threshold for its 7-8 million population in PMR.
A shortage of buses results in lower frequency, longer waiting times and overcrowding. Gadgil said the administration needs to introspect on the reasons of declining mode of preference for travel and find ways to encourage the riders.
“Lower frequency, long wait times and crowding are turning people away,” said Deepak Makwan, a graduate student commuting from Hadapsar to Kothrud. “I’ve started relying on a friend to get to college because I can’t afford to be late. Returning home by bus often takes two hours.”
Breakdowns are also a problem — PMPML recorded 561 in April 2025 alone.
Despite rising congestion, efforts to discourage private vehicle use have fallen flat. A parking policy proposed in 2017 to introduce public parking charges was never implemented. In fact, PMC challenged mall parking fees in Bombay High Court in 2019.
Experts say such decisions incentivise private vehicle use. “Free parking and more flyovers just fuel more traffic,” said Gadgil.
This has also led to a rise in accidents. According to Pune Police, the number of road accidents in the city increased from 1,230 in 2023 to 1,404 in 2024, with the majority attributed to heavy traffic flow and speeding.
Efforts are being made to reduce congestion, according to Pune police. “We’ve identified 17 hotspots and installed monitoring systems. Signal synchronisation, removing encroachments and one-way traffic flows have improved vehicle speed to 22 kilometres per hour in some areas,” said Additional Commissioner of Police Manoj Patil.
However, Gadgil argued that such measures only increase the vulnerability of pedestrians and two-wheeler riders, as they tend to encourage higher vehicle speeds. “Moreover, converting roads to one-way traffic may give commuters the impression of smoother movement, but it often results in longer travel distances and extended commute times,” he said.
Interestingly, Pune has seen marginal improvement in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels, according to Central Pollution Control Board. Annual concentrations of PM2.5 dropped to 59 in 2023 and 41 in 2024 from 67 microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m³) in 2022 — just above the national standard of 40.
But the air remains a serious health concern, especially for vulnerable groups. “Improving infrastructure for walking, cycling and public transport is an urgent need in Pune to protect public health and safety. Pollution impacts vital organs such as the brain, heart and liver, with children, pregnant women and the elderly being particularly vulnerable,” said Sanskriti Menon of the central think tank Centre for Environment Education.
Pune also sees some of the highest fatalities related to road accidents in India. To reverse this trajectory, Menon said the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations and Traffic Police must work to bring down the share of private vehicle trips in the region to 20 per cent or less — a goal laid out in the CMP.
Gadgil emphasised that robust public infrastructure, strong political will and committed local administration are essential to demonstrating successful public transport use. “Last-mile connectivity, pedestrian-friendly pathways and proper implementation of the parking policy and bicycle plan could be key to relieving the city from its vehicle congestion,” he said.