The Rs 4,000-crore township that farmers built

Tell us something about yourself.

I am not important. The project is and it is well-known and that's what is important. I studied agriculture because I was from a family of farmers and those were the days of the Green Revolution.

When did you first get the idea of this city?

I knew that Pune was getting urbanised. I did not want some government order grabbing our land under the garb of developing it. Not that we were politically weak. My father's elder brother Annasaheb Magar has won five elections from here. He was the MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) from here for five terms from 1952. He then became an MP (Member of Parliament) during the Janata Party regime. His name helped us when we dealt with the government.

He and (former chief minister of Maharashtra) Y B Chavan were the only Congressmen to win in western Maharashtra during the Janata Party wave in 1977.

In 1992-93, a lot of unauthorised constructions came up all over the place. It was chaotic. I decided to develop a township in reaction to this in 1994. We told the government that we wanted to develop an integrated township.

This area has been called Magarpatta for 400 years. I have seen the problems of children going to school. I have seen the problems of workers commuting to work. I wanted to create an ideal situation where you could walk to work and the children could walk to school.

I spoke to (the well-known Mumbai architect) Hafeez Contractor and also to local architects. I read the Town Planning Act. I found out how much area has to be left open. We told the architects and engineers what we wanted and they gave us this plan.