The amazing story of Magarpatta City

Magarpatta City is the first ever project in the history of real estate where a group of about 120 farmer families converted their land into an enterprise. Spread over 400 acres of land having residential complex, hospital, shopping complex, school, restaurants as well as the top leading IT companies. About 10 years ago, this area was owned by the farmers who were at risk of losing their land to urbanization. It is at this time that Mr. Satish Magar, the chairman and managing director of Magarpatta city and who owned nearly 100 acres of the land, gathered together all the families and convinced to get benefit from their land holding. Now they are all the proud stakeholders with holding stakes directly proportionate to their land. Magarpatta city is a city which is not made by taking away the lands from the farmers but it is made by the farmers.

Based on the walk-to-school, walk-to-work’ concept’ Magarpatta city is an effort to ensure a convenient, enjoyable, and a stress-free life for a family, providing all the basic amenities and facilities that a family would need. Children can walk to school thus reducing their travelling time. Special care is given to maintain the greenery, with about 120 acres of land being spared for gardens, trees, and various kinds of flora thus making it a pollution free city and a beautiful place to live in.

Magarpatta has the state-of-the-art Cybercity IT parks which enjoys the presence of leading global IT giants. Cybercity is blessed with international facilities. There are 12 towers and many other facilities which houses companies like Amdocs, John Deere, Accenture, Mphasis, Avaya, WNS, EXL, SYBASE etc. Refer to the link for list of all the companies in Magarpatta City

Now, when we booked our flat in 2005, we were not sure if all the facilities that the Magarpatta sales team was promising will be fulfilled. I am glad that Magarpatta team has fulfilled most of the promises if not all. One of the best things I see is that the maintenance fees is for lifetime and they have not charged a single penny so far. Garbage is collected every day from the door steps, our common area is cleaned at least 5-6 times a day, we get 24 hours water supply (solar heater), and there is a mini market inside where almost everything is available. As Magarpatta is environment friendly, we get 10% off on our property tax. Magarpatta is a booming place, and with the Mega shopping complex (Seasons) and multiplex (Cinepolis) coming up, I am sure that this is going to take Magarpatta to an altogether different level. I tried to paint an honest picture about Magarpatta city. Do have a look at my Picasa Album on this blog and write to me if you have any questions at pall.sheetal@gmail.com. You can also leave me a comment here, I will try to answer as quick and as best as possible.

Magarpatta City Official Website

Cinepolis

Schools in and around Magarpatta

Am writing this as I found that many people wanted a firsthand experience about the schools in Magarpatta / Pune. This is entirely based on the feedback I received from the parents who send their kids to these schools. Though I cannot guarantee the authenticity of the feedback, I believe they are accurate.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES IN MAGARPATTA

Magarpatta City School: Magarpatta Vidya Pratishthan is a co-education school and follows the ICSE pattern from standard V. From Std. I to Std. IV the school follows the syllabus of the state education department. The school infrastructure is really good with a massive playground. There are also a lot of co-curricular activities which include music, dance, singing, gymnastics etc. Also Magarpatta City Public School has an attached Sports Complex with facilities for Swimming, Athletics, Tennis, Badminton, Volleyball, Basketball, Football and Hockey. I have heard the children playing really nice band with the drums, flute during their assembly. Overall, I have got a good feedback except for the high children to teacher ratio. This school only allows kids from Magarpatta City (owners / tenants). The school fee is very minimal. The School do not provide transport facility. I have got very good feedback about this school.

On weekends, there is ABACUS classes for the kids above 5 years of age. The kid may not necessarily be a student of Magarpatta School; anyone above 5 years can enroll there.

Magarpatta City Institute of Management and Technology: The institute is housed in an independent Wi-Fi enabled three storied building. Each class room is fitted with a ceiling mounted LCD projector. Computer lab has 60 networked computers of latest configuration. Library is well equipped with large number of books, national and international journals. An English language laboratory has also been incorporated in computing facilities. The institute also has a canteen on the house

Courses: Masters of Business Administration and Masters in Personnel Management.

PLAYSCHOOLS IN MAGARPATTA (not necessarily in the order of preference)

Eurokids

Eureka

Bachpan (Play school and daycare)

Head Over Heels

Serra International

Tree House

Kids2Teens

IKEN braingym

Panda kids (Preschool and day care)

Rachna Play school (Preschool and day care)

SCHOOLS NEARBY MAGARPATTA CITY (not necessarily in the order of preference)

Pawar Public School: This is a co-education school, about 3 kms from Magarpatta city, located in the Amanora (http://www.amanora.com/), and follows the ICSE curriculum. School has music and drama classes as well as lot of sports activities like tennis, badminton, skating, basketball etc. The school fee is reasonable. The school provides transport from every corner of the city. The admission process is very transparent and I have heard very good reviews from everyone about this school.

Amanora Manipal School: A co-educational school, also located in Amanora, 3 kms from Magarpatta. The school follows CBSE curriculum from Grade I onwards. All classrooms are equipped with ICT that help the children to visualize the concept in a better way. Activities like music, painting, drama, dancing, basketball etc. are encouraged. The school fee is reasonable and it is one of the very few CBSE schools in Pune. This school has completed one year and still in the development stage. Manipal K-12 team has plans of setting up more than 100 schools in India in the next 5 years. They have recently tied up with Pearson (http://pearsonschools.in/) which hopefully is going to redefine the way of teaching in schools. The school provides transport facility. Though this is a new school, there is lot of buzz about this school here.

Hutchings High School: It’s a very old and prestigious school, founded in 1879. This is a co-educational school, about 8 km from Magarpatta city and it follows ICSE curriculum. The feedback I have is that as far as academics is concerned, the school is very good but there are lesser co-curricular activities. It is difficult to get admission in this school as the demand for this school is very high. One of the reasons for the high demand could be the minimal school fee. School does not provide any transport facility.

Bishops School: Bishop’s has three schools in Pune. Bishops Camp is a Boys school and Bishops School at Kalyani Nagar and Undri are co-educational. Out of the three, the demand from Magarpatta is mostly for the Kalyani Nagar School. I don’t know much about these schools but as it is also a very old and prestigious school, I believe they should have very good balance of study and co-curricular activities. The school provides transport facility.

Delhi Public School: Delhi Public School Pune was established in 2003. DPS Pune is affiliated to CBSE, New Delhi and offers schooling from Nursery to Class XII. Heard very good reviews about this school, it is around 10 Km from Magarpatta City. The school provides transport facility

VIBGYOR High(NIBM Road): It is located around 10 kms from Magarpatta. It offers both ICSE and IB curriculum. The teacher to student ratio is very good here, which enables the teachers to pay attention to each and every kid. I have got good feedback from the parents, especially about the co-curricular activities in the school. The school provides transport facility

There are so many other schools in Pune but I am writing only about few of them for which I have good feedback from parents. If anyone has a particular school in mind, do write to me I will try to find out and respond.

Thanks

Eateries in Magarpatta City

Deccan Harvest:

It is a multi-cuisine restaurant. Situated at the centre of the 12 IT towers, it is one of the favourite places for the IT people working in the Magarpatta city.

Food: Quality of food is good.

Ambience: Great

Rates: On the higher side.

Service: Could be better.

Cocoon:

This is the service hotel at Magarpatta city. It has 118 Suite Rooms with The World cuisine Restaurant, Lounge bar, Conference & Banqueting facility. The interiors of the hotel are very beautifully done. It is a perfect place for business parties. It has a multicuisine restaurant named @M where one can really enjoy mouthwatering food with family and friends though there are very few options for the vegetarians.

Food: Good quality food.

Ambience: Great.

Rates: Reasonable.

Service: Good.

Yummy Tummy:

This is more like a fast food type restaurant where you can get really good snacks. There is a live pizza and dosa counter and north Indian mini meals which is very reasonably priced. It has indoor as well as open-air dining area. On the terrace of yummy tummy, there is Café Coffee Day which is really good.

Food: Average.

Ambience: Good, open air.

Rates: Quite reasonable.

Service: Could be better.

Mini Punjab:

Multi-cuisine restaurant in the Destination Centre. There is a wide variety of food available here for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Food: Good quality

Ambience: Good

Rates: Reasonable

Service: could be better

DESTINATION CENTER (DC)

DC as it is called is the market hub of Magarpatta, you can find almost everything out here.

There are also many dosa corners, Andhra meals, Bengali food, Gujarati food, doctor chicken; famous for the biryani, 3 bakery shops, Kathi rolls shops, Smokin' Joe's Pizza, Punjabi spice famous for its north Indian and Chinese cuisine, Amul outlet, Jalebi Junction famous for the Jalebis and also Poha, Momo’s counter, Panipuri counters and some sweet shops.