Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Police joint operation in Ahmedabad 450 ‘Illegal’ structures near Vanarwat Lake razed

As part of the ongoing ‘encroachment-free’ campaign for city’s lakes, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the police department on Tuesday razed around 450 unauthorised structures from the Vanarvat Lake area in Vatva.

In the joint operation, around 300 employees and officials of the AMC including those from Estate, Health, Fire, Urban Development Departments and 400 police personnel removed encroachments from 54,883 square metres of public space, the civic body said.

The work of removing the kutcha and pucca encroachments in the vicinity of Vanarvat Lake in South Zones’ Vatva ward started around 8 am on Tuesday and prior notice was given, officials said.

“This action was divided into four blocks and around 450 kutcha and pucca residential and commercial encroachments in the Vanarvat Lake area were removed using 10 heavy duty machines. As a result 28,227 square metres of the lake’s area has been made encroachment-free. In addition, 6,658 square metres of the reserved final plot for garden and 18 and 24 meters wide Town Planning road around the lake have been reclaimed from encroachments. This work has opened up a total of 54, 883 square metres of lake and 770-metre long TP road along with the reserved plot,” an AMC official said.