Gujarat hardlook: Ahmedabad’s green push

IT WAS 1897. At a public meeting in Ahmedabad, prominent citizens proposed the idea of setting up a garden to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria, the then ruler of the United Kingdom. As per the decision, the garden would be maintained by the City Municipality and a yard next to the jail of the time was set aside for the purpose.

Well-known sculptor from the then Bombay state, H G Mhatre, carved a statue of the Queen in marble, standing over 7-ft-high in her full regalia, a sceptre in one hand and a globe in the other, and it was unveiled in the garden under a stone canopy in 1910. Thus the Victoria Garden opened in the city. The garden was built with funds raised by the city businessmen, at the east end of Ellis bridge, now Vivekananda Bridge.

In 1929, Victoria Garden saw another chapter in history when the Ahmedabad municipality cleared a proposal to set up a statue of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak at the garden, for which a third of the sum was raised by contributions from the general public. The statue was unveiled by Mahatma Gandhi in February that year, garlanding it with a hand-spun cotton hank. Several decades later, the garden would be named after Tilak, and the queen’s statue would be moved out.

On April 12, 1972, activist Ela Bhatt, leading a group of women in this historical park, decided to launch the Self Employed Women’s Association or SEWA. Bhatt planted a banyan tree 50 years later at the spot to mark the birth of the body, which today is among the largest network of self-employed women. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the redeveloped 34,000 square yard garden to pay homage to Bhatt’s memorial here in 2023.

Called the city of gardens before the British came, Ahmedabad is not only reviving its gardens but building new ones integrating the needs of the neighbourhood – some with jogging tracks, open gymnasiums and yoga spaces.

If Victoria Garden was created with money raised from Ahmedabad’s businessmen, the model today is Public Private Partnership (PPP). The city now has 308 parks and gardens with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation using spaces around lakes, under flyovers and metro routes to create gardens and green spaces by roping in private players for their development and maintenance.

Among the latest of the historic gardens refurbished is the Sardar Baug in Lal Darwaja, located next to the Sidi Saiyyed mosque, in the busiest part of the city on the east, with the central bus station, luxury hotels of the time, banks, and the informal bazaar.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the garden redeveloped by the UN Mehta Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Torrent Group, last year. Spread over 26,010 sq metres, this garden is said to have been built by Sultan Ahmad Shah in the 15th century. Part of the garden was being used for taxi parking, much of it was in ruins when the AMC decided to revive this space at the centre of Ahmedabad. Now it is not only easily accessible, but has aesthetic landscapes with a rose garden, a section with medicinal plants, large trees, a jogging track, lighting and more.

“Calmer than a café and free” is how a 21-year-old college student The Indian Express met at the Sardar Baug described it. “It is very important for broke students. The central flower patch looks pretty in photos,” he said.

Rajiv Desai, 50, a small business owner would walk in the compound of his society till the Oxygen Park came up at Bodakdev in 2024. “Here at least I see different people, do some stretching. My doctor also told me to walk 30 minutes a day because of a borderline diabetic issue,” Desai says.

Spread over 27,200 square metres, this park stands in Ahmedabad’s current poshest locality – The Sindhu Bhavan Road.

Karan Patel, a 27-year-old IT professional who usually works from home and a regular at the park suggests it could do with “more dustbins”.

Several youngsters frequently visit the space – such as Pooja Vyas, 29, a human resource manager in a private firm, who finds her “quiet time” here. “My job is about talking to people all day. This is the only time nobody asks me for anything,” she says.

35-year-old businessman Harshil Rana, has switched from the park in Vastrapur to Bodakdev. “The Vastrapur one became chaotic after 8 am. However, here if you do not come before 7:30 am, you will be stuck trying to find a parking spot. That needs to be addressed,” he says.

Under the Mission Million Tree campaign, the AMC has developed 319 Oxygen Parks or ‘Urban Forests’ through the Miyawaki method.

In a first, the AMC developed a biodiversity park on the riverfront in 2020, which has a ticketed entry. It has a nature trail, species of birds and trees, offering a unique experience. As a 19-year-old college student who was on an assignment to take “nature pictures” said, “This place is like a gold mine. The little water bodies with aquatic plants are the best, I didn’t expect that in a city like Ahmedabad. It doesn’t feel like a typical park.”

“Plots are already reserved for the new parks and gardens as per the Town Planning Scheme, which are developed based on development in the area. The ones that go under redevelopment are based on condition and demand. However, the focus is more on oxygen parks to be developed in the city,” Principal Director General, Parks and Gardens, Amrish C Patel told The Indian Express.

As the AMC has launched a massive drive to free all lakes from encroachments, some 120 of them, it is also looking at the redevelopment of these lakes using the vacated land as parks and gardens for public use.

“While three major lakes have been cleared of encroachment, including Isanpur, Kamal Talav, and Chandola Lake in 2025, the campaign will continue for other lakes too. The idea is to develop the lake and its nearby areas as gardens for public use,” AMC Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani told The Indian Express.

Encouraging private players to help redevelop lakes along with parks and gardens, recently, a total of 42 lakes under the AMC jurisdiction have been given to UNM Foundation under the PPP mode. While 24 lakes will be developed in phase I, the remaining 18 lakes will be taken up for maintenance in phases II and III.

The AMC’s Parks and Garden Department is planning a similar model for its existing 308 parks and gardens and the new ones to come up in developing areas to be given on PPP mode, says Patel.

With most of the new parks having water bodies, dense plantations, gazebo-style seating areas, walking and running trails, open gyms, children’s play areas, the new gardens are being planned keeping in mind something for every age.

Facilities such as the assets, required water and drainage facilities are provided by the AMC. It also has to provide linkages for the disposal, processing and treatment of the green waste after it is properly segregated by the private party. It ensures that no untreated sewage or drainage water comes to the lakes, makes necessary arrangements for stormwater and surface water management, and no activities are allowed inside the landscape near the lake which may disturb or damage the landscape or the property, along with providing electricity connection.

While the private company has to install at its cost all lighting fixtures, it is exclusively responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the lakes and surrounding landscapes and will bear all operational expenditure. It appoints an architect to review and advise on design changes and will jointly oversee execution with the AMC. It ensures proper maintenance of the plantations in the surrounding landscape, along with making an inventory of existing trees, so that all trees remain the property of the AMC.

The private player also has to provide the manpower as well as maintain cleaning, watering, lawn cutting, hedge trimming, tree pruning and associated tasks, maintenance of walkways, signage, gates, curbing, compound walls and other civil works, regular disposal of green waste and garbage at designated locations, routine cleaning of benches, pathways and other existing infrastructure. It also has to give advance intimation related to major repairs such as maintenance of electric connections, drainage and water pipelines, electricity fixtures to the AMC.

Under the agreement, the company gets permission to display its name and logo on the main entry gate and other prominent areas of the lakes and gardens. However, it is not allowed to engage in commercial activities within the lakes or surrounding landscapes, and it has to deploy requisite security personnel along with installation of CCTV systems at certain places, depending on requirement.