Pune, 1st December 2025: Pune witnessed a strong display of community partnership on Sunday as the city hosted its first-ever River Festival 2025 – Clean River, Beautiful Pune.
Organised jointly by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and thousands of Punekars, the event aimed at giving a renewed push to river cleanliness and urban environmental awareness. Seeing the overwhelming public participation, the PMC has now decided to organise the festival thrice a year.
The centrepiece of the festival was a large-scale clean-up drive carried out along the Mutha river stretch from Bhide Bridge to Mhatre Bridge between 7 am and 11 am. Teams from the PMC’s solid waste and environment departments, supported by several environmental groups such as Yuva for Action, Ecosun Services Foundation, Jeevitnadi Living River Foundation and other NGOs, worked together with volunteers to remove accumulated waste.
In just four hours, they cleared significant amounts of garbage, gravel and overgrown grass from the riverbed, using JCBs, trucks, cutters, and specialised civic machinery.
Multiple PMC departments, ranging from sewerage, solid waste and environment to garden, traffic, health, Smart City and regional offices, coordinated to ensure smooth operations. Their combined effort helped restore a cleaner stretch of the river and showcased what collective action can achieve.
The festival also highlighted Pune’s cultural identity. Students from the Adi School of Dance in Kothrud performed to songs such as Oh Ganga Behti Ho Kyu and Namami Brahmaputra by Bhupen Hazarika, while dancer Shalvi Kolhatkar presented Nadi Sagarat Milata, written by G. D. Madgulkar. Senior civic officials and citizen-activist Shyamla Desai were also present and appreciated the initiative.
Reflecting on the day’s efforts, municipal commissioner Naval Kishore Ram said the event represents a shift in how cities tackle environmental issues, noting that progress becomes possible when citizens and the administration work together toward a common goal.