Thursday 24 November 2011

Karjat King ~ A Treat for the Veggies

idli sambarVegetarian restaurants seem to be a trend in Karjat, here comes another that proclaims itself as the king, Karjat King!

After sampling their dishes three times, I think its safe for us to put a review up. Although we have eaten at the restaurant only once, the other times we took a parcel. The best part about the restaurant is that it serves Mushroom dishes.karjat king restaurant in karjatTheir Mushroom Tikka Masala, is quite yummy and so are the other dishes they offer. Compared to Raj Cottage and Royal Garden, Karjat King's quality of food and taste are better, since its a new restaurant I guess this is the only way it can make a name for itself.The time we ate over there or even taking a parcel, service is a little bit off and the coffee cups were not as clean as you would want them to be :( That was a little bit on the downside. The other downside there were so many dishes on the breakfast menu that were not available, dosas, sandwiches, the only thing that was available was the medu vada and idli sambar.medu vada at karjat kingApart from that the dishes were nice and new, there's no ambiance, seating is fairly simple but the food cost is not really cheap or too expensive. Part of the menu is placed below for you to judge, its approximately the same cost as Raj Cottage and a bit more expensive as compared to Royal Garden. The restaurant is located at the corner of the Karjat to Khopoli road.karjat king menu cardkarjat king main course menu

Update December 1st, 2012

This restaurant has closed down probably because of less customers.



Wednesday 7 September 2011

BSNL's Internet Service in Karjat

When we moved from Mumbai to Karjat we were very apprehensive about the Internet services in Karjat, since we use to have problems with Tata Indicom's service in Mumbai, we expected the worse, especially being a rural area.

But our country is full of surprises, since BSNL was a major ISP here and with a few relatives who live in Goa recommending BSNL connections we decided to try them out. We first purchased a CDMA datacard with national roaming that we still use. The card has been used in Pune, Goa, the sad part is that it doesn't work in Mumbai, but works all around India for a cost of Rs 550 a month plus taxes, our total volume of usage has been over 16 GB of data transfer.
bsnl broadband karjat
No other ISP offers you an unlimited data card plan for so cheap, with speeds of around 8 - 12 KB on an average. With the help of BSNL we managed to get a landline since the cable was around 150 meters away, we hired a JCB got the cable put in and our connection in such a short span of time it was fantastic. We are now on a 512KB unlimited plan and its uptime is around 95% which is way better than what we had in the city.

Mr. Singh and Mr. Jhangham from BSNL Karjat were extremely helpful while we were getting our connection. Today Mr. Singh is in Mumbai while Mr. Jhangham still helps, if you need to get an Internet connection in Karjat, don't look any further, your solution is BSNL.

5% downtime isn't too much,it seems sometimes locals who provide phone services tend to cut the cable so as to help kill the more affordable solution. So in case your are laying a broadband cable it has to be around 3 feet deep to avoid this from happening.
deepika in a bsnl ad
We would sincerely like to thank BSNL Karjat for providing us with this wonderful service, allowing us to survive in the midst of nature! Thank you everyone at BSNL for the hard-work that goes into providing your services in Karjat.

To make it easier we have uploaded all the forms required for a new telephone & Internet connection, yopu have to get a landline to apply for Internet.

Download BSNLs New Internet Connection Forms

Bsnl Karjat Contact Numbers:

Customer Care - 221399/222599
Customer Care Karjat Urban - 221499
Customer Care Karjat Rural - 221000

Monday 15 August 2011

Animal Shelter Opening in Karjat

An Animal Shelter is slated to open in Karjat near Takve village, which is around 12 kms from Karjat. Started by The Terra Anima Trust for Animals, the shelter supports injured, abandoned, destitute and chronically handicapped animals. It will be open 24x7 and will provide medical help to injured animals.
injured stallion and dog at animal shelter karjat
Roxanne Davur, is a Master Trainer in Animal Welfare, Govt. of India and has worked in the Nilgiris for the past 15 years and has moved back to Karjat. She aims to spread awareness, encourage careers, education and empathy in Animal Welfare.
setting up of animal shelter in karjat by terra anima trust for animal welfare
pups at the animal shelter in karjat
The shelter will have a resident vet much needed in Karjat with the lack of veterinarians and the amount of farm animals, livestock and stray dogs.
dogs enjoying in the rain water
This will be one of the closest Shelters to Mumbai and the first to open in Karjat. There use to be a dog breeding farm but that has shifted to Pen. More on the animal shelter soon!

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Buying Property in Karjat?

ads with greeneryThe demand for property in Karjat has pushed the land prices up by phenomenal amounts, today the prices are anywhere from 25 Lakhs an acre to over a Crore an Acre depending on the location of the property.

That is not a small sum of money anymore, only the rich can afford to have a huge farm house with acres of land, while the upper middle class look out for plots.

A builder buys a couple of acres, then divides them into plots and sell them for a handsome profit. Lets take a look at some pointers that you need to be aware of before buying your dream home in Karjat.

Most builders advertise their properties with pictures taken during the rainy season. The main reason why that happens, is because it displays the fact that there is no shortage of water. But thats far from true, many parts of Karjat face a severe water shortage, these places are located after the page river, namely Kashele.

An important point is to see if the builder guarantees a 24/7 bore-well with water during summer time or a river that flows even during summer this would be the most important factor.

Is the land you are buying agricultural or non agricultural. Was the land a previous paddy or rice field, if it was then you need to get trucks of mud to elevate the land or be prepared for flooding during the rainy season, your house construction should also be elevated.

bellevert karjat advertisementIf you need to dig a bore-well, remember that wells cannot be re-bored or are nearly cost the same as boring a new well. Remember to go down at least two to three hundred feet if you strike water in the first hundred feet to avoid problems in the future.

Would you like to stay connected while you are in Karjat, BSNL provides some fantastic internet services with special discounted costs in the rural areas, find out where the BSNL towers are for basic connectivity and where their centers are for broadband connectivity, broadband exists all the way to Takve as of now.

Hope you find this post informative and helpful when you buy your second home in Karjat!

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Karjat's Saturday Market

Every Saturday, Karjat hosts a vegetable market just after crossing the bridge on the left hand side located opposite the colourful marriage hall. The chance of getting a good deal here not only attracts truck loads of people from the villages, but also farm owners and urban dwellers who come to Karjat for a relaxing weekend.karjat saturday bazaarThe produce is grown by farmers between Karjat and Pune and Nashik as well. They slowly come in the morning and sell their vegetables till sunset, but by evening most of the leafy vegetables are sold out.
truck load of vegetablesWhile some vendors bring in their tempos full of goods, others come with sacks full of produce to sell through the day. With the amount they bring in you can imagine the amount of people flocking to buy their supplies.
sacks of stored produce
Add to that the amount of vendors required to sell their wares and you have a full fledged bazaar on Saturday. The price of course is less than the usual market price, and the price in the bazaar itself varies from vendor to vendor so do check a couple of vendors prior to purchase.
hoards of vegetable vendorsWe bought quite a few vegetables including some that are not to be found on a daily basis in Karjat, like Zucchini and Sweet Corn.
sweet corn vendorApart from vegetables, you have a Gola Wala or Kulfi Wala helping the crowd keep cool. Its not usually to find vendors selling masalas and spices in the market as well.
masala powder vendorEverywhere you find people who love the camera, here were two vegetable sellers who wanted us to take a picture of them :)
happy vendors posingSeeing the popularity of the Bazaar, more vendors are beginning to put their wares on display. Like the steel vendor below, who seems to be bargaining with a customer. stainless steel utensilsA good time to visit the bazaar would be around noon when all the vegetables are just brought in and you have a lot of variety, or in the evening if your looking for discounts on the usual veggies.