From a bustling hostel campus to blackened shells of concrete: A month later, at ‘AI 171 Ground Zero’ in Ahmedabad

A month on, only charred remains of trees that caught fire in the crash give some inkling of life that the premises were bustling with until a month ago.

A tag on Google Map marks the mess building, where the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s tail was stuck for days after the crash, as “AI 0171 Ground Zero”.

The four hostel buildings, Atulyam 1-4, lie blackened and abandoned, awaiting their fate with their former occupants – the medical students – being moved to other campuses. Police personnel guarding the site are the only people that could be seen in the area.

The crash site has been secured by the Gujarat Police for the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). The debris of the Dreamliner is in a secure hangar on the premises of the Ahmedabad airport just 6.6 km away, where it was moved two weeks after the crash.

Around 150 medical students and doctors who used to reside in the Atulyam hostels on the IGP compound – the premises used to earlier house the office of the police chief – have now been moved to other accommodations. With most of them putting up in the group of hostel buildings right next to the crash site, their line of sight is a daily reminder of the colleagues they lost. Four medical students were among the ground casualties of the crash.

Around 150 medical students and doctors who used to reside in the Atulyam hostels on the IGP compound – the premises used to earlier house the office of the police chief

The Indian AAIB, which has been working on its investigation at the crash site along with partner investigators from the UK and the US, recently submitted a preliminary report to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Jaypalsingh Rathore, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Sector-2), told The Indian Express, “The AAIB has almost completed its work at the site and is likely to release it (the report) by next week. Once they write to us stating that the security cordon is no longer required, we will release the bandobast.”

The aircraft, bound for London Gatwick, crashed at around 1.38 pm on June 12, less than a minute after take-off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.

Of the 242 people aboard the aircraft, 241 lost their lives while British national Viswash Kumar Ramesh survived the crash. A total of 19 people died on the ground, including those on the hostel premises and on the road outside it. Some of them perished on the spot, others died during treatment at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.

At the crash site, the overhead section of the mess building’s terrace can be seen damaged and leaning to one side. On the other side, a gaping hole remains where the tail of the aircraft had been left hanging after the crash, before it was removed on June 22.

The aircraft, bound for London Gatwick, crashed at around 1.38 pm on June 12, less than a minute after take-off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport

Regarding the future of this crash site, officials at Medicity, under whose aegis the medical college comes, told The Indian Express that while there was major damage to the mess building, and Atulyam hostels 1-4 had gone up in flames with most of the aircraft crashing right next to them, Atulyam 8 had remained completely unaffected. During the rescue operations, Atulyam 8 was used as a base of operations for the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). It has now been handed over to the medical college.

BJMC Dean Dr Minakshi Parikh told The Indian Express, “The students have been relocated to other hostels on the campus. We also took some rooms on rent and moved a few students there.”

To make up for the damaged mess, a new one has been set up in the Sopanam 7 and Sopanam 8 hostel buildings next door. “We vacated the canteens from there and turned them into a mess. We set up 27 kitchens, gave them new utensils and one month’s provisions as well,” said Dr Parikh.

After the crash site is released by AAIB, the structural integrity of the four damaged Atulyam hostel buildings will have to be assessed by experts. The government will then take a call on whether they can be retrofitted or must be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up.

The medical college, meanwhile, resumed classes on June 23 and held a prayer meeting for the deceased on June 24. Exams were held two days later. Dr Parikh told The Indian Express that remedial exams would be held for around eight students who could not take them. Writers would be provided to those needing them, Dr Parikh added.

Earlier, The Indian Express had reported about grief counselling sessions the college held for students.

After the crash site is released by AAIB, the structural integrity of the four damaged Atulyam hostel buildings will have to be assessed by experts

On the main road outside the Atulyam hostels, there are three police pickets. One is on the main Ghoda Camp road just opposite the gate of the 1,200-bed Woman, Child and Super-specialty Hospital. The second one is next to the main gate of the National Institute of Occupational Health (ICMR-NIOH), which stands exactly opposite the affected hostel buildings. This is the point from where vehicle entry is barred.

There are more than 100 police personnel deployed along the perimeter of the crash site and at the hangar of the Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Limited (GujSAIL) at the airport, said Additional CP Rathore.

Rathore said, “We mainly had curious locals coming to see the aircraft besides relatives of the victims arriving to pay their respects. Also, medical students came to salvage their belongings. The main problem, of curious onlookers, persisted for about 15 days when we had to maintain the sanctity of the site for investigation. There was heavy security in the initial two weeks, which was scaled down after barricades were put up.”

After days of deploying a police vehicle to guard a wall breach near Gujarat Housing Board apartments in Meghaninagar, which would give access to the site, the broken section has been sealed with metal sheets.

The third police picket is at the main gate of the hostel compound where watchman Rajendra Patankar of the Gujarat Industrial Security Force (GISF) was injured and later died during treatment. This is the same gate from which crash survivor Ramesh walked out in a daze, before he was ushered into an ambulance.