The Pune Municipal Corporation has raised ₹45.83 lakh by auctioning 128 spaces for firecracker stalls across the city, but weaker bidding at the prominent Vartak Baug site and no response for 56 identified spaces have reduced the civic body’s expected rental income this year.
The municipal administration made spaces available at 13 locations for the sale of firecrackers. An online auction was conducted under the civic body’s space-allocation rules, under which permission is granted to the bidder offering the highest rent. A minimum rent of ₹34,000 was fixed for each stall.
According to a report by Sakal, 152 people participated in the online auction. The Pune civic body had identified 184 spaces across the city, of which 128 were leased. The auction generated total income of ₹45,83,034 from the spaces that were allotted.
The locations included Vartak Baug in Shaniwar Peth, Kondhwa Khurd, Hadapsar, Dhanori, Kothrud, Katraj, Parvati, Dhayari, Kharadi, Balewadi, Warje and Lohegaon. The sites are made available annually by the municipal corporation for temporary firecracker shops.
Vartak Baug, located in the riverbed area of Shaniwar Peth, has traditionally attracted the highest bids. The municipal corporation permits around 40 shops at the site. However, competition was lower this year, with 49 traders bidding for the 40 spaces. The highest rent for an individual shop was ₹98,000, while rents for the remaining shops ranged between ₹50,000 and ₹70,000.
This represents a substantial decline from last year, when the highest bid for a shop at Vartak Baug was ₹2.5 lakh. The fall in bidding at the site contributed to a significant reduction in income compared with the previous year, the report said.
The online auction system has been used for the past three years. The change was intended to reduce the influence of fixed groups and political intermediaries in the allocation process, while allowing traders from different parts of the city to participate. The wider participation had previously helped the civic body secure higher rents for some locations.
The unleased spaces also point to uneven commercial demand across Pune’s temporary firecracker markets. Although the auction process attracted 152 participants overall, 56 of the 184 spaces received no response. The municipal administration’s final income therefore depended not only on the number of sites offered, but also on the level of competition at individual locations.
The civic body’s auction has provided revenue from temporary use of municipal land while creating designated locations for firecracker sales. The remaining spaces, along with the reasons for the lower response at several sites, were not detailed in the report. The reported auction outcome records 128 leased stalls and total rental income of ₹45.83 lakh for the year.
