Ahmedabad's longest garden soon on east bank

Eastern Ahmedabad's green lung will get healthier soon. The Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL) has chosen Sabarmati river's eastern bank between Subhash bridge to Wadaj Dudheshwar bridge to develop a kilometer long garden.

The work will start on the longest garden of the city next month.

The proposed garden will be developed on the reclaimed land along the eastern bank of Sabarmati under the Sabarmati Riverfront project.

Officials at SRFDCL say, one of the best gardens the city will have jogging track, thousand of trees and plants, seating arrangement, play ground and joy rides for children.

The river-side garden will also have several food courts, facilities like amphitheatre to host cultural programmes and city's first sun clock. Plaques narrating the history of Ahmedabad will be placed at certain distance in the garden.  It will have access from lower promenades and also from the reclaimed land.

The SRFDCL has floated tenders to start the civil and electrical work which needs to be completed before taking up plantation in the gardern.

"The garden will be spread on around 15 acres of land and will be developed at the cost of around Rs 16 crore. Currently, we have issued tenders to get civil and electrical work done," said an SRFDCL official.  Once this work is completed, tenders will be invited for the horticulture work, added the official.

He said the work which would commence in January, 2011, will take at least a year to be completed. This means, if the sapling plantation  starts in January-2010, it would be over within a year.

Under the Sabarmati Riverfront project, 32,190 sqm public garden will be developed from Gandhi bridge to Nehru bridge, 19,485 sqm heritage park from Nehru bridge to Ellisbridge, and 18,365 sqm public garden from Gandhi bridge to Usmanpura. On the western bank, Vasna will get urban forestry spread in around 98,361 sqm area.

Under the Rs1200 crore project, the SRFDCL plans to develop 77 hectares of land for parks and gardens. The project would have 162 hectares of reclaimed land on the Sabarmati riverbank.