The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Saturday walled up an unnamed ancient doorway on the north-western end of the over-600-year-old Bhadra Fort that leads down to the Sabarmati river.
Residents of a slum on the other side of the wall, Chand Shaid Dargah na Chhapra, who used the doorway to access the river, were issued notices last month about partial demolitions for “illegal constructions” encroaching on and blocking a sewage line.
The AMC is developing a heritage garden between Nehru Bridge and Ellisbridge on the east bank of the river, running between the city wall and the riverfront road. Officials said sewage had been flowing into the garden.
The sealing of the doorway not only cuts off the slum’s access to the river but also hides it from view of the upcoming heritage garden.
The AMC has also been working on fixing the sewage issue, which residents said caused wastewater to overflow into homes every morning in the Jamalpur ward.
The notices were sent on November 20, about a month after The Indian Express first reported on the issue on October 13, when residents had objected to the closure of the doorway.
A senior AMC official said, “We have worked on fixing the sewage issue, but many homes have encroached on the sewage line, on the manholes. How can we provide proper facilities without removing these encroachments?”
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Heritage activist Munaf Ahmed, who earlier moved court against the Railways over protection of monuments at Kalupur railway station, has also sent complaints about the walling up of the unnamed darwaza to the Chief Minister’s Office, the Municipal Commissioner and the city’s Heritage Department. He argued that the pedestrian doorway, though unnamed in historical archives, has been in continuous public use for centuries, making it part of the city’s living heritage. “The Heritage Department has failed in its duty to protect the heritage of this city. It is a toothless tiger,” he said.
The fort wall of ancient Ahmedabad runs for 800 metres on the east bank of the Sabarmati.
Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Heritage department) Ramya Kumar Bhatt confirmed to The Indian Express that the darwaza had been walled up, and said, “We are working on clearing up the sewage issue.”
This darwaza is not a separate structure but is built into the city walls. While the Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Volume IV: Ahmedabad (1879) mentions roughly the same location as “Baradari Darwaza”, several historians The Indian Express spoke to said this likely referred to a pavilion-type structure that no longer exists.
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The name also does not align with sources such as the 1938 A History of Gujarat by Professor M S Commissariat, who, citing the Mirat-i-Ahmadi, notes Daricha Bagh and Khirki as two passageways between other darwazas, Khanpur and Rakhad.
Ahmedabad was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah I on February 26, 1411, and completed 614 years in 2025.
Brendan Dabhi works with The Indian Express, focusing his comprehensive reporting primarily on Gujarat. He covers the region's most critical social, legal, and administrative sectors, notably specializing at the intersection of health, social justice, and disasters.
Expertise
Health and Public Policy: He has deep expertise in healthcare issues, including rare diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), the complex logistics of organ transplants, and public health challenges like drug-resistant TB and heat health surveillance. His on-ground reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic and Mucormycosis was critical in exposing healthcare challenges faced by marginalized communities in Gujarat.
Social Justice and Legal Administration: He reports on the functioning of the legal and police system, including the impact of judicial philosophy, forensics and crucial administrative reforms (. He covers major surveillance and crackdown exercises by the Gujarat police and security on the international border.
Disaster and Crisis Management: His work closely tracks how government and civic bodies respond to large-scale crises, providing essential coverage on the human and administrative fallout of disasters including cyclones, floods, conflict, major fires and reported extensively on the AI 171 crash in Ahmedabad.
Civic Infrastructure and Governance: Provides timely reports on critical civic failures, including large scale infrastructure projects by the railways and civic bodies, as well as the enforcement of municipal regulations and their impact on residents and heritage. ... Read More
