Zero Stone, one of the jewels of Pune, says civic chief

Located outside the General Post Office (GPO) near Sadhu Vaswani Chowk, the entire footpath on which the stone, marking Pune’s ‘0 km’, is located, has been renovated and beautified

Dedicating the restored and beautified ‘Zero Mile Stone’ to the city, Pune municipal commissioner Saurabh Rao on Friday described the heritage monument as “one of the jewels of Pune.”

Pune municipal commissioner Saurabh Rao (3rd from left); Abhay Vaidya, resident editor, Hindustan Times Pune (4th from left) and senior Congress corporator Arvind Shinde (3rd from right) inaugurate the restored ‘Zero Stone’ on Friday. (Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

Appreciating the work undertaken by senior Congress corporator Arvind Shinde as a part of his ward development work, Rao said that the restoration of the Pune monument had done full justice to the history behind the Zero Stone, 80 of which were installed by the British surveyors across the country.

Located outside the General Post Office (GPO) near Sadhu Vaswani Chowk, the entire footpath on which the stone, marking Pune’s ‘0 km’, is located, has been renovated and beautified. Aesthetically done sculptures of geographers, information boards and replicas of instruments used by the pioneering surveyors of the country have been installed. An attractive ‘selfie point’ has also been created on the footpath.

“I have worked in Nagpur before which has the central zero stone of our country, but I can say confidently that it is not comparable to what has been done in Pune. Today, I have drawn inspiration from here and we all will be educated by visiting this spot. I will always give priority to such new initiatives in the city,” Rao said.

Leader of the Congress in PMC, Shinde, thanked Hindustan Times for drawing attention to the state of neglect of the Zero Stone. “We grew up as children in this area but never realised the significance of this heritage monument till our attention was drawn by Hindustan Times through sustained reporting,” he said.

Stating that the restoration of the heritage monument brought an immense sense of pride, he said, “Through this project, we have tried to bring in all the details and historical information about this stone.”

Corporators Lata Rajguru and Chandbi Nadaf, senior postmaster Pune GPO N R Shedge, head of the GPO’s Philatelic Bureau, Narendra Laganar, and HT’s resident editor Abhay Vaidya were among those present at the event.