Pune Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Local transport

Taxi

Long-distance shared taxis (four passengers) link up Pune with Dadar in Mumbai round the clock. They leave from the taxi stand (26121090) in front of Pune train station (per seat Rs 260, AC Rs 320, three hours). Share-taxi services to Nasik and Aurangabad have been discontinued.

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Land

Bus

Pune has three bus stands: Pune train station stand (26126218), for Mumbai and destinations to the south and west, including Goa, Belgaum, Kolhapur, Mahabaleshwar and Lonavla; Shivaji Nagar bus stand (25536970), for points north and northeast, including Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Ahmedabad and Nasik; and Swargate bus stand (24441591), for Sinhagad, Bengaluru and Mangalore. Deluxe buses shuttle from the train station bus stand to Dadar (Mumbai) every 30 minutes (semideluxe/deluxe Rs 117/240, four hours).

Plenty of private deluxe buses head to most centres, including Panaji in Goa (ordinary/sleeper Rs 300/400, 12 hours – though high season prices sometimes rise to Rs 600!), Nasik (semideluxe/deluxe Rs 200/250, five hours) and Aurangabad (Rs 160, six hours). Make sure you know where the bus will drop you off (going to Mumbai, for instance, some private buses get no further than Borivali). Try Bright Travels (26114222; Connaught Rd); its buses depart from the service station near the roundabout.

For Mumbai the train is the safest option.

Train

Pune is an important rail hub with connections to many parts of the state. The swarming computerised booking hall (131) is in the building to the left of the station as you face the entrance – take a deep breath before crossing the threshold.

The Deccan Queen, Sinhagad Express and Pragati Express are fast commuter trains to Mumbai, taking three to four hours.

Getting Around

The airport is 8km northeast of the city. An autorickshaw there costs about Rs 50, a taxi is Rs 150.

City buses gather at the PMT depot across from Pune train station, but journeys are slower than a wet Sunday. Useful buses include bus 4 to Swargate, bus 5 to Shivaji Nagar bus terminal, and bus 159 to Koregaon Park.

Autorickshaws can be found everywhere. A ride from the Pune train station to Koregaon Park costs about Rs 30 in the daytime and Rs 50 at night.

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Air

Airline offices in Pune:

Air India (26128190; Hermes Kunj, 4 Mangaldas Rd)

Air Sahara (26059003; 131 Sohrab Hall, 21 Sasson Rd)

Indian Airlines (26052147; 39 Dr B Ambedkar Rd)

Jet Airways (26123268; 243 Century Arcade, Narangi Bung Rd)

Indian Airlines flies daily to Delhi (US$153, two hours), and to Bengaluru (US$102, 2½ hours), Goa (US$60 45 minutes) and Mumbai (US$102, 30 minutes). Jet Airways flies twice daily to Mumbai (US$81, 30 minutes), Bengaluru (US$146, 1½ hours), Delhi (US$186, two hours), and daily to Chennai (US$169, 2½ hours) and Kolkata US$336, 2½ hours). Air Sahara flies twice daily to Delhi (US$115, two hours). Of the budget airlines Spice Jet flies to Delhi and Bengaluru, while Kingfisher flies to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jammu and Nagpur. Air Deccan links Pune up with Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad, and IndiGo flies to Bengaluru and Delhi.

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