Tilak Tank - The oldest and only swimming pool in Pune in early 1900.
This was a old stone quarry with some natural springs. By the way there are many natural springs in Pune area and during construction they find many of these. In 1906 the Deccan Jimkhana Club was founded by the Pune Cricket lovers. These cricket passionate puneites started playing the game of cricket at the outskirts of Pune city. Gradually the fervor raised to its summit, with the players volunteering relentless efforts to nurture this piece of land so as to enjoy good game of cricket. This laid the cornerstone of the Deccan Gymkhana club. While building the club and surrounding buildings when the founders saw the natural springs in the quarry more than half filled with water, the founders decided to make use of this natural springs and converted and expanded it into a swimming pool and named it "Tilak Tank".
This was a old stone quarry with some natural springs. By the way there are many natural springs in Pune area and during construction they find many of these. In 1906 the Deccan Jimkhana Club was founded by the Pune Cricket lovers. These cricket passionate puneites started playing the game of cricket at the outskirts of Pune city. Gradually the fervor raised to its summit, with the players volunteering relentless efforts to nurture this piece of land so as to enjoy good game of cricket. This laid the cornerstone of the Deccan Gymkhana club. While building the club and surrounding buildings when the founders saw the natural springs in the quarry more than half filled with water, the founders decided to make use of this natural springs and converted and expanded it into a swimming pool and named it "Tilak Tank".
Today the tank houses the Olympic size swimming pool of Deccan Gymkhana Club. The club was the first to organize Olympic trials in the country in 1918, that was the time the colonial countries were allowed to represent Olympic games independently.
