town attracts millions of devotees annually to the resting place or (Samadhi) of the 13th century Marathi Bhakti saint, Sant Dnyaneshwar Dehu - The town on the banks of the indrayani river is associated with Tukaram, the 17th-century poet-saint of the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra. The town is visited by hundreds of thousands of people for the annual Pandharpur Wari when the paduka (symbolic sandals) of the saint are carried to Pandharpur in a palkhi. Economy Pune is one of the major industrial hubs in Asia in which the majority contributes from the neighbourhood of PCMC, Pune. The formation of MIDC in 1962 resulted in a constant process of industrial land acquisition and the creation of required support infrastructure. Since then, there has been a massive influx of several European companies who continue to be keen on setting up manufacturing facilities in PCMC, Pune. It has a rapid growth in terms of the industries and most of the major automobile companies and their headquarters are located here. There is also a rapid growth in the software and IT departments. Industrialization started in 1954 with the arrival of India's premier antibiotics research institute Hindustan Antibiotics Limited. PCMC, Pune is now home to the Indian operations of major automobile companies like Bajaj Auto, BEL Optronic Devices Limited, Daimler Chrysler, Force Motors, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Kawasaki, Kinetic Engineering, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz India, Premier Ltd., TATA Motors, Thermax and Volkswagen. In addition to this, several heavy industries such as Alfa Laval, Atlas Copco, ATS Automation Tooling Systems, Bharat Forge, Bosch, Bridgestone, Finolex Group, Forbes Marshall, Geberit, General Electric, Hyundai Heavy Industries, IKEA, KSB Pumps, Lear Corporation, Lumax, Manitowoc Cranes, New Holland Agriculture, Sandvik, Sany, Schindler Group, Sigma Corporation, SKF, Suzlon, ThyssenKrupp, Varroc have their manufacturing units in the city. The Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park in Hinjawadi is a ₹60,000 crore (US$8.9 billion) project by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC). The IT Park encompasses an area of about and is home to over 800 IT companies of all sizes. Government and public services On 4 March 1970, the villages of Pimpri, Chinchwad, Bhosari and Akurdi merged into a single municipal authority, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Council, Pune. Two years later, the Pimpri Chinchwad New Town Development Authority, Pune was established. Its chief objective was to create a planned environment for the working population in the vicinity of their work place. On