THE BURDEN OF EXPANSION

If things go according to plan, the world will be coming down to stroll along the Sabarmati riverfront. India is likely to bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, after the Australian state of Victoria dropped out earlier this year.

- Jumana Shah

The second phase of the riverfront project should be ready by then, taking off from where the first ended-just before the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave in Ahmedabad. That 236-acre visionary statement-not a modest one, at a Rs 4,600 crore cost-is also coming up as the showpiece for India's bid to host the 2036 Summer Olympics. Tying up that vision, as if with a blue ribbon, will be the expanded new riverfront.

Phase 2 of its makeover-5.5 km on both banks-was approved in 2020 with an initial budget of Rs 850 crore and has got the environmental nod. In the pipeline are multi-layered promenades, parks, food plazas, amphitheatres and other recreational facilities, besides an extensive road network. But many hurdles loom ahead, the tight deadline being only one of them.

Conceived around the turn of the century for 'reconnecting Ahmedabad to its river', the Sabarmati project saw an 11.5-kilometre stretch passing through the heart of the city being developed in the first phase, which was inaugurated in 2012. The plan is to extend this all the way to capital Gandhinagar-26.65 km in multiple phases over the next 15 years. The twin cities are emerging as an intertwined entity, whose management could eventually be vested with a single administrative authority.

The third phase, still at the pre-feasibility study stage, will extend further north for four kilometres till the Narmada main canal, just before the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (or GIFT City), a greenfield smart city and fintech hub. The state's irrigation department is developing another four-km stretch along GIFT City, having acquired land in four villages. Eventually, the riverfront will culminate at Shahpur village in Gandhinagar (see map).