The Gujarat government has hired a Singaporean company as a consultant to develop the last three phases of the Sabarmati Riverfront, which will be spread across state capital Gandhinagar and some parts of Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City, The Indian Express has learnt.
Surbana Jurong, a company owned by Singapore government’s investment vehicle Temasek, “is preparing the master plan for phases four to six of the Sabarmati riverfront project”, a senior official said.
Phases 1 and 2 were designed by city-based HCP Design Planning and Management Pvt Ltd, headed by architect and urban planner Bimal Patel. They cover a part of the Sabarmati river that passes through Ahmedabad – 11.5 km in phase 1 and 5.5 km in phase 2. This is under the jurisdiction of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, while the rest of the riverfront falls under other state departments and local bodies.
It was in 1997 that the Gujarat government formed the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Ltd (SRFDCL), a Special Purpose Vehicle for executing the project.
The first phase, inaugurated in 2009, involved the reclamation of 204 hectares of land on either side of the river. Promenades, the Atal Bridge, parks, and sports infrastructure had made it the centrepiece for Gujarat.
“With a total length of 38 km implemented to be in six phases, Sabarmati Riverfront from Vasna Barrage till Chiloda Bridge near the thermal power plant in Gandhinagar will span across two districts – Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar,” the chairperson of the SRFDCL, I P Gautam, told The Indian Express.
Surbana Jurong Group, which developed a theme park along the Han Cheng Ju Shui riverfront in China’s ShanXi’an province, is already involved in housing projects in Gujarat. In 2019, the Gujarat Housing Board awarded SJ a project to build 15,000 affordable homes in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara.
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“Hiring new agencies brings in newer ideas,” an official of the Gujarat government said about the two new firms taken on board for the project.
“The master plan and designing of phase 3 will be done by Sobha Consultants, for which the tendering process is underway. They are keen to start work on the ground at the earliest,” the senior official said.
The part to be developed by Surbana Jurong spans 16.5 km – from Narmada Main Canal to Chiloda Bridge — of the planned total 38 km riverfront, estimated to cost around `3,300 crore.
Work for phase 5, which is till GIFT City, is already in progress, with the state irrigation department nearing the completion of the “diaphragm and retaining wall” along the Sabarmati. Surbana Jurong will begin its work once the wall is constructed.
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After the Indira Bridge – where the jurisdiction of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation ends – agencies like Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC), Gandhinagar Urban Development Authority (GUDA) as well as the Urban Development Department will be roped in under supervision of the SRFDC to execute the riverfront project.
The SRFDCL approved the concept planning and design of Phase 2 in October 2020, it is learnt. Phase 2 involves extending the existing riverfront by 5.8 km east and 5.2 km west — right up to the Indira Bridge.
According to senior officials, the planning for Phase 2, which started after the Covid, includes an “international park” to showcase “green wealth from different countries”, a ferry service and possibly a water taxi.
As part of the “stepped landscaped embankment”, the promenades are being designed in different layers to facilitate a view of the river from any of these layers. The plans also include the promenade with a dedicated walkway and cycle path to be closer to the river, followed by a second one that will be a green belt where there will be 2.35 lakh trees on the east and west sides of the riverfront, it is learnt. A 5-km stretch has been developed in Phase 2 as a sample, officials said.
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Though the number of layers or promenades would vary at different stretches, one of the layers will feature sports modules from rock climbing to open gymnasiums every 200-300 m. One of the promenades will also have recreational facilities such as libraries and restaurants, with ramps and wide footpaths to link the promenades.
Unlike Phase 1, Phase 2 does not involve rehabilitation or relocation of slums, sources said. Around 10,500 riverbank slum units were relocated in Phase 1. The 1-km stretch along Ahmedabad cantonment area, which was originally part of first phase but could not be developed because it was under Defence Ministry, will also be part of second phase now that the land has been handed over to SRFDCL, officials said.
Sabarmati Riverfront has hosted several cultural, religious, political events in the past. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hosted three heads of state on the Sabarmati riverfront – Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014, former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe in 2017 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018.
