Social Upliftment
The project master plan aims at improving and providing social facilities for the city with the following objectives:
Rehabilitation & Resettlement
The project aims at resettling over 10,000 households that were previously living in slums along the banks of the river. Slum dwellers living on the riverbed and affected by the project have been relocated and provided with ‘pucca’ housing with secured tenure. This process of providing each claimant a permanent, titled housing in one of the many relocation sites interspersed within the city’s boundaries has been carried out under the supervision of the Gujarat High Court.
The project also aims at integrating the informal activities such as laundering of clothes and informal markets. The Laundry Campus provides state-of-the-art facilities for the washing community that has traditionally used the river banks for washing and drying of clothes. The weekly flea market 'Ravivari' held every Sunday has been relocated to Riverfront Market , a site adjacent to its original location where specially designed vending platforms and designated areas for mobile vendors have been created.
Creation of Parks & Public Spaces
The project aims at transforming Ahmedabad’s riverfront to reconnect the city with its river. By reclaiming around 202 hectares of riverbed land on both sides of the river, for a length of nearly twelve kilometres, the project replaces a largely private riverfront with a public realm that will connect an expansive network of parks and promenades for the city’s five million residents to enjoy.
One of the key features of this project is a two-level, continuous promenade at the water’s edge along each bank of the river. The lower level promenade has a minimum width of six meters. It has been built just above the water level to serve pedestrians and cyclists and to provide access to the water. The upper level river promenade is being built to host a variety of public features: few areas for commercial and retail development, leisure activities, large parks and plazas, public washrooms and retail kiosks. Together, these promenades provide Ahmedabad with a 11.5 km long pedestrian walkway in the heart of the city. Ghats punctuate the lower level promenade at planned intervals to provide access to the water for recreational and cultural activities.
Over a quarter of the reclaimed land has been designated for parks and plazas. The parks will provide much needed green open spaces that will serve the adjacent neighbourhoods as well as strengthen the city's green network. Few of the significant projects that have emerged from this objective are:
Riverfront Park: Subhash Bridge
Riverfront Park: Usmanpura
River Promenade
Provision of Socio-Cultural Facilities
To provide new and improved facilities for the city and to include sections with particular needs, provision of markets and vending areas to include street vendors , laundry facilities for the washing community, trade and fair facilities for the business community have been made in the project. The project replaces a largely private riverfront with an expansive public realm with a network of parks, waterside promenades, markets, cultural institutions, recreational facilities and commercial developments for the city’s five million residents.
The significant facilities that have been provided in the project are:
Riverfront Market
Laundry Campus
Events Ground
Exhibition Centre
