In April, 2023 thousands of Pune residents and environmentalists held a rally to protect Vetal Tekdi or the hills which form the highest point of Pune.

A press release in March 2023 by PMC stating that tenders for the road construction would be floated soon triggered this massive protest. For the protestors, Vetal Tekdi are important green lungs of the city. which need to be protected. The rally was organised to oppose two more projects, besides this road development.

The road project is the construction of the Bal Bharti- Paud Phada (BB-PP link road) connection road which passes through Vetal Tekdi. The proposed BB-PP link road project is [2.1 km long](https://d1fdloi71mui9q.cloudfront.net/R7CJtYDLRT26EcdyHrog_Balbharti-Paud Road PPT to Estimate committe.pdf), [30 m wide](https://d1fdloi71mui9q.cloudfront.net/R7CJtYDLRT26EcdyHrog_Balbharti-Paud Road PPT to Estimate committe.pdf), and has a [24 m](https://d1fdloi71mui9q.cloudfront.net/R7CJtYDLRT26EcdyHrog_Balbharti-Paud Road PPT to Estimate committe.pdf) carriageway and [6m](https://d1fdloi71mui9q.cloudfront.net/R7CJtYDLRT26EcdyHrog_Balbharti-Paud Road PPT to Estimate committe.pdf) path for pedestrians. The road starts at the point close to the Balbharati Building on Senapati Bapat Road and ends at Paud Phata at Kelewadi. It runs parallel to the Law College Road passing over the foothills of the Vetal Tekdi. 

The project will require cutting down 1500 trees and disruption of the aquifers below the Tekdi. Besides the road, the other two projects include the construction of two tunnels through the Vettal Tekdi. And the HCMTR – an elevated ring road of which 2km is aligned along the hill slope of Pune Law College. Activists assert that the environmental utility and importance of the Tekdi far exceeds the traffic decongestion obtained from the project. 

The BB-PP link road project has been a bone of contention for Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) since it was first proposed in the 1982 Development Plan (DP) of Pune. In 1987 Punekars expressed strong objection to the proposal of a road through one of the dense green patches of the city by carrying out an agitation.

The state government of Maharashtra cancelled the road proposal in 1987. In 1996 the road project was again proposed and approved by the general body resolution of PMC. This was followed by opposition from Pune residents, delaying the implementation of the project.

Finally in 2006 a Pune based NGO, Nagrik Chetana Manch filed a Public interest Litigation (PIL) against the proposed road.

The court ordered multiple status quo orders against the road construction and ultimately in 2016 asked the PMC to conduct an environment impact assessment (EIA) and traffic study by an expert committee (EC) before beginning any construction in the area. 

In 2017, PMC formed an expert committee and hired two consultants to prepare the EIA report (VKe, consultancy firm) and Traffic Survey (Sustainancy, consultancy firm). In 2018, the PMC passed the second phase of the city’s Development Plan (2007-2027). Going against the court's decision on the matter, the PMC approved the same road in that plan before the expert committee could submit its reports.

As per Vetal Tekdi Bachav Kruti Samiti (a collective formed to save Vetal Tekdi), thousands of Pune residents shared their suggestions to the Development Plan, and demanded that the hill be kept in its natural state.

The [EIA and traffic](https://d1fdloi71mui9q.cloudfront.net/LAlyzKYpTrSHhLsEJKxk_PMC_Traffic_EIA_MainReport_Balbharati road_RTI.pdf) study were ready by June 2021. One of the independent members of the expert committee, Maj Gen Jatar stated that the ecology of the hills would be critically and irreversibly impacted including seriously impacting groundwater sources of the area.

Even after the recommendations of the independent member of the EC, the PMC went ahead with the proposal to construct the road. This decision has led to the current protests by residents of nearby areas and activists in the city who have come together as a collective named Vetal Tekdi Bachav Kruti Samiti (VTBKS). This collective has received support from leaders of all major political parties in the city except the Bhartiya Janata Party.

The collective has put forward three demands: all the projects in the tekdi should be scrapped, the area should be declared a natural heritage and reserved as a 'no development / no construction zone'. Finally, public spending should be directed towards strengthening public transport instead of such developmental projects.

Dr. Sushma Date, from the collective, told LCW she believes that the road is not just environmentally degrading but is also a poor investment of public resources as the road will decongest very minimum traffic, which will come back to its current levels in 10 to 12 years.** ** 

In June 2023, members of VTBKS alleged that the real purpose of the road project was to create an access road for a township project in the hill.