Riverfront gets a bonanza from Gujarat civic body

The area designated as public space along the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)'s 1200-crore Sabarmati riverfront project, just got bigger by 6500 square yards.

In a major move, AMC bosses have decided to give away a massive plot of land, housing some 122 families of staff of the Sheth Vadilal Sarabhai Hospital, to the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL), the special-purpose vehicle floated by the AMC to look after the project.

With this, 80% of the reclaimed land, which is expected to be developed into public spaces such as parks and gardens among others, the riverfront will have an additional 6500 square yards of space.

AMC bosses say this space will add to that designated for public utilities. Standing committee chairman in the AMC and a board member in SRFDCL, Asit Vora, said that they are still planning on how to utilise the space. However, sources in the AMC say that the space might be used to set up a convention hall, or  a science or arts centre. 

The buzz in the civic body is that the AMC should not have given the hefty chunk of land situated in a premium location to the SRFDCL without charging them a single penny. Current realty rates on Ashram Road are expected to be between Rs50,000 and Rs65,000 per square yard. This means that the 6500 square yard-plot would have generated around Rs32 crore for the VS hospital trust, to whom the land belongs.

Currently, the VS staff quarters located at the end of the hospital premises, facing the Sabarmati river, accommodate around 122 staff families in five blocks. AMC authorities say that of these residents, around 56 families will be shifted to the quarters constructed at Vasna, while the rest will be moved to those near Prahaladnagar.

This 6500 square yard space falls between the Ellis bridge and Sardar bridge, which will see development with activities like boating, and office space on the river's west bank. After acquiring the land, the staff quarters' land will be completely separated from the VS Hospital area.

The SRFDCL that had planned to sell off around 32 of the total 168 hectares of reclaimed land on the riverbank, is also toying with the idea of auctioning off 17 hectares of land to recover the cost of the project, estimated at Rs1200 crore.