Pulgaon

Pulgaon पुलगांव Bridgetown
City
Pulgaon Location in Maharashtra, India
Coordinates: 20°43′34″N 78°19′01″E / 20.726°N 78.317°E / 20.726; 78.317Coordinates: 20°43′34″N 78°19′01″E / 20.726°N 78.317°E / 20.726; 78.317
Country	India
State	Maharashtra
Region	Vidarbha
District	Wardha
Government
• Type	नगरपरिषद
Elevation	285 m (935 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	33,925
• Density	959/km2 (2,480/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	pulgaonkar
Languages
• Official	Marathi
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN	442302 * 442303 (CAD Camp)
Telephone code	91-7158
Vehicle registration	MH32 (Wardha District)
Website	www.collectorwardha.nic.in

Pulgaon is a city and a municipal council in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Bridgetown

Location

Pulgaon is located at 20°43′34″N 78°19′01″E / 20.726°N 78.317°E / 20.726; 78.317 It has an average elevation of 285 metres (935 feet). The nearby towns are Nachangaon (2.0 nautical miles (3.7 km) to south), Kautha (3.7 nautical miles (6.9 km) to the East), Talni (5.1 nautical miles (9.4 km) to West) and Gunjkheda on Now

History

It is a railway junction on the Wardha-Badnera section, Arvi narrow-gauge rail link taking off from here northwards. The main town lies south of the railway and is comparatively a new town sprung out of a collection of hutments of workers employed on the railway bridge over the Wardha river near which the town stands. Hence its name "Pul=Bridge_&_gaon=Town => 'Pulgaon' = a Town by the Bridge", sometimes called as the "Bridgetown" just for fun. Its rapid rise in importance is due to the favorable position it occupies in the center of a large cotton growing tract. Again Pulgaon is on the Mumbai-Nagpur trunk route and hence can avail itself of the speedy transport. Added to the post and telegraph, is the telephone exchange which highly facilitates commercial transactions.

Panchadhara point

Pulgaon was created as a municipality in 1901 [Census Handbook of Wardha District however gives the year as 1902.] and has an area of 5.3 square miles (14 km²) under its jurisdiction.^[1] Nineteen elected councilors constitute the municipal committee. A president is elected by the councilors from among themselves to preside over its meetings. In 1961-62 the total municipal receipts were Rs. 2,87,337 of which receipts from municipal taxes amounted to Rs. 1,12,347. [Ibid.

Plugaon_CAD CAD Camp or Central Ammunition Depot Camp is a military area and the second largest ammunition depot in Asia. It is located near Pulgaon in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.[1] It was a place of minimal security risk until around 1999-2000. After 11 September attacks and the Indian parliament attack in 2001, the security of the area was increased, and all type of leisure activities surrounding the area were stopped. On 31 May 2016, a major fire broke out in the ammunition depot. At least 2 army and 18 DSC personnel were killed and 19 were injured.[1][2]

About city

Pulgaon, a small town but one of the major activity centers in Wardha district, after Wardha & Hinganghat, junction on the central railway, with the population of >2 lack, but still could not receive the Tahsil Status because of the Politics in the area & the CAD camp, even is not easily identifiable through most of the maps. It is on the bank of the Wardha river and easily accessible to three districts, Wardha, Amravati & Yavatmal. Two companies in the town, Shri Krushna Industries' Cotton Mills erstwhile Pulgaon Cotton Mills Ltd. & BEC fertilizers .

There are also some ginning and pressing factories. Hand-loom cloth industry is also picking up gradually. . The town has a rest house too.

The town is built on rocky soil and derives its water supply mainly from the Wardha river, though in recent years quite a few wells have been added to augment the water supply. In dry years when the water runs low a scarcity of water is felt.

Nachangaon and Gunjkheda being the two major adjacent villages, connected to Pulgaon with all the businesses & activities relying on it, making this area bigger than it is said, with a few others villages nearby coming behind. So many temples, Panchadhara in Wardha river, & so on.

"Pulgaon Cotton Mills", founded in 1890 by British, is one of the ancient industries in the central India, serving its 113 yrs of service, was closed by the State Government in March 2003, putting almost 2000 families in a big trouble, losing the major source of income for the people in town & surrounding areas.

The Ganesh Festival in PCM was the biggest in Vidarbha region and the most famous one, is now stopped or is not being offered anymore like the one it used to be before the closure in 2003. That was the real charm & entertainment in the town, for 10 days in Aug-Sept of every year. It is said that, under the high pressure of the Builder Lobby in state and getting a bulk amount of money, Maharashtra Govt closed 11 mills in the State between 2000–2003, and PCM was one of them, leaving bad impacts on minds & scars on the souls of the people in the state.

CAD camp CAD Camp or Central Ammunition Depot Camp is a military area and the second largest ammunition depot in Asia. It is located near Pulgaon in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.[1] It was a place of minimal security risk until around 1999-2000. After 11 September attacks and the Indian parliament attack in 2001, the security of the area was increased, and all type of leisure activities surrounding the area were stopped.

Political Performance in Election 2016^[2]

Party Name	Party flag or symbol	Number of Corporators mayor name - mrs. Shital Sanjay Gate
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)		8
Indian National Congress (INC)		2
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)		5
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)		0
Shiv Sena (SS)		0
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS)		0
08	Independents		3

Surrounding cities

Pulgaon connects two districts namely Wardha and Amravati. Wardha is the nearest city (32 km, via new Nagpur-Aurangabad-Mumbai express highway) and a district place too. While it's accessible to three cities & districts as well, Amravati (75 km) on West, Wardha (32 km) on East and Yavatmal (50 km) on Southwest.

Demographics

Pulgaon, with in 1961 a population of 28,063, is a fast-growing, Tahsil-level municipal town in Wardha district on bank of the Wardha river situated about 19 miles (31 km) south of Wardha.

In 1991, Pulgaon's population was 36,600 and it is still growing. Pulgaon's current population is 33925. Just like most of the small towns in the rest of India, the city limits have already been crossed and the majority of the Pulgaon population, which even write Pulgaon as a city & pin 442302, are legally in the limits of either Nachangaon or Gunjkheda and so there is a need of restructuring of the city limits, which might make it a B-grade or even rather A-grade Municipal Corporationwith the total possible population of >70000. In 2005, it was B-grade, with the current boundary limits of 5.29 square miles (13.7 km²).^[3]

Education & facilities available

Previously, in past until around 12-15 yrs back, Pulgaon had educational facilities only up to the higher secondary school stage, with the primary education being solely conducted by the municipality. But the recent evolutions & developments made it a city with almost all facilities, comparable to other Tier IV cities or the other cities/towns of its type. This town now has the Jr. & Sr. Colleges of all the streams viz., Science, Commerce, & Arts. The degrees offered in those colleges are BA, MA, BCom, MCom, BSc, DEd, with BEd, BCS/BCA, DFarm and some other diploma & academic degree colleges in the Science, Education and Medical & Pharmaceuticals fields coming up in nearer future (Src.: news in the daily news papers in the area, published from Nagpur & Wardha, in Jun-Jul' 2005).

Also, the Primary Schools are not solely the Municipal dominations now. There are more Marathi, Hindi, English & Urdu medium schools shaping up in Pulgaon. The R. K. High School & Jr. College being the Top ranked school in town and the oldest of its kind, with almost 85-90% of the town's doctors, engineers, managers & teachers of tomorrow coming out from the school every year. This school has the highest record of the number of candidates clearing exams every year with an average of above 82%, followed by schools like Aadarsh High School & Jr. College, Laber Camp High School, St. John High School, Central School, Dr. ZakirHussain Urdu High School, Lalitabai Muraka girls high school and Jr. College.

Pulgaon is city of technical education, one of pulgaon city jewell educational institute is Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Pulgaon, established in 1963 with need of catering technical manpower established by Govt of Maharashtra. Its providing cutting edge technical education to young youth of city, and transforming them to tommarrows technical leaders.

A city library is conducted by the Siddharth Navyouvak library. The municipality conducts a civil hospital together with a family planning centre. There are also a veterinary dispensary and a leprosy eradication center. A club known as Liberty Club established in 1952, besides providing most of the indoor games, has been doing fine work in social and cultural fields also. In 1961 the efforts of its members materialized in the shape of a Manila Mandal, tailoring classes and a vyayamshala or gymnasium. It also brings out a weekly magazine both in Hindi and Marathi captioned 'Shiv Prerana' for which a press was set up in 1962.

Education institutes

Pulgaon is home to some of India's important institutes. Some of the major centres are:

• Lalitabai Muraka girls high school and Jr.collegeetc
• R.K.college of art and science , pulgaon
• Army school
• Central school,pulgaon
• Polytechnic college,pulgaon
• GOVERNMENT ITI, PULGAON
• Dnyanbharti Highschool & Jr. College of

  science

• Dnyanbharti Vidyalaya Marathi Pri. School

Religion and culture

One of the oldest temple near Panchadhara

The town has temples dedicated to all religions Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist. The major Hindu temples in the town being Madan Mohan, Balaji, Shiva, Maruti, Ram, Datta, Bhavani-Mata, Katheen-Mata, Bhairav-Baba and Vitthal. Of these, Balaji temple is reported to be 80 years old and is looked after by a trust and the Shiva temple at the Panchdhara is one of the oldest too. The first temple to be built in Pulgaon is of Goddess Bhavani near CAD camp, built at the time of Shivaji Maharaj.

another look

The Jain temple in town is one of the oldest too and is the only for all the Jains in town & nearby. the Mahavir Jayanti Utsav is celebrated every year, with a huge procession through the town. The Buddha temple in the town containing a bronze bust of the Buddha, has a spacious Sabhamandap and is built by the neo-Buddhists of Pulgaon. The Statue is reported to have been brought from Thailand. Madan MohanVallabh Sampraday Haveli (temple) was built some 110 years ago by Ishwardasji Mohata. Madan Mohanji (Krishna) & Shyaminiji (Radha) along with Laddu Gopal in Astha Dhatu is celebrated there.

Pulgaon is one of the leading cotton trade centers in the district, there being a large cotton market. The Pulgaon spinning Mills were opened in 1890. The PCM (Pulgaon Cotton Mills) was the oldest one, which was closed in 2003. There are also some ginning and pressing factories. Hand-loom cloth industry is also picking up gradually. Pulgaon has assumed military importance since the establishment of Asia's second largest ammunition depot, CAD camp, here. The town has a rest house too.

Transport

Express Highway Bridge over Wardha river near Pulgaon

There are both the major transportations available. There is an MSRTC (Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation) Bus-Depot & workshop in Pulgaon. In 2007 it had a capacity of 38 buses. Major bus routes passing through Pulgaon are Nagpur-Gondia, Mahur-Yevatmal-Arvi-Katol, Shegaon-Akola-Amravati-Wardha-Chandrapur, etc. with connecting other major cities & towns around or further ahead. The bus stop & railway station both are located at the Camp road, Pulgaon.

Pulgaon is a station on the Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line.

Railway and roadways are the main modes of transportation. Pulgaon is on the Central railways route, 105 km (66 Miles) from Nagpur & 32 km (20 Miles) from Wardha towards West. Pulgaon is a small junction too, connecting Arvi to the main central route by a narrow gauge line.

The National level Highways, North-to-South from Bhopal to Hyderabad and East-to-West via Nagpur-Aurangabad-Mumbai express highway crossing at Pulgaon. This route, once done will connect many cities & important activity centers in Maharashtra via the same link, reducing the distance between Nagpur & Mumbai by almost >8 hrs. as compared to NH 6, as the sources said.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pulgaon.

• pulgaon population 2011