Ganeshotsav: Pune Techie Builds Free Tool To Plan Mandal Visits
Pune: For devotees navigating Pune’s crowded Peth areas during Ganeshotsav, deciding which mandals to visit and in what order can often be as difficult as finding them. Addressing this problem, 24-year-old software engineer Ameya Jain has developed puneganpati.in, a free route-planning platform that helps visitors plan their darshan based on their available time, preferences and entry point into…
Pune resident Ameya Jain has created a free online tool called puneganpati.in to help devotees plan their Ganeshotsav visits to the crowded Peth areas. The platform considers factors such as available time, preferred mandals and entry points to generate optimized routes, minimizing unnecessary travel and backtracking. Users input their desired experience, such as live natak or elaborate sets, and the website generates a sequence of mandals to visit, accounting for walking times and anticipated crowds.
The tool separates walking time from darshan time, allowing users to prioritize their darshan experience. Users can also manually adjust the route or use the "Build your own route" option. Once a route is created, it can be shared with others via a single link, displaying the group's progress in real-time. Ameya Jain built the platform after observing difficulties devotees faced in navigating the Peth areas during the festival, with no single list providing the information they needed.
Since its launch, the tool has been accessed by over 4,100 users and has appeared in approximately 8,200 Google searches, receiving attention organically without any promotional efforts.
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