Ahmedabad heritage buildings face bulldozer

The two monuments, which the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation proposes to partially demolish in Astodia to widen the road...

The two monuments, which the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) proposes to partially demolish in Astodia to widen the road, are not only historically important but are also architectural marvels. Considering that both the structures are part of Ahmedabad’s heritage—architects, conservationists and citizens in general are expressing their anguish at the damage AMC is likely to cause to these structures.

On Friday, about 50 leading citizens including architects, writers and engineers got together at the Gajjar Hall and condemned the AMC’s eagerness to demolish portions of the structures, which would leave them permanently scarred. They deplored AMC for its decision of carrying out demolitions in the vicinity of heritage monuments.

The mosque of Rani Sipri of Sa’Brai standing on Astodia road, which has to be partially felled has been described as “one of the gems of Ahmedabad” in AMC’s own book titled, Amdavad: Gujarat nu Patnagar. This book was written by the famous historian, Ratnamarirao Bhimrao and was published by AMC in 1953. The Patharwali Masjid nearby is too an architectural wonder.

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Led by Bhavna Ramrakhiani of Ahmedabad Community Foundation who has relentlessly worked to restore the decaying Sarkhej ni Roja, and joined by the likes of Kartikeya Sarabhai of Centre for Environment, architect Yatindra Chaya, dean of school of architecture of CEPT Nilkanth Chaya and former municipal commissioner P K Ghosh, writer Esther David, joined in condemning the proposed demolitions.

Ghosh said traffic congestion on Astodia Road was due to traffic mismanagement and not due to the width of the road. They were unamimous that now Amdavadis must ensure maximum safety for monuments and demolitions be stopped within 100 metre of their radius.

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