Saurabh Mehta I PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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A city is distinguished from other human settlements by its relatively great size, but also by its functions and its special symbolic status, which may be conferred by a central authority. The term can also refer either to the physical streets and buildings of the city or to the collection of people who dwell there, and can be used in a general sense to mean urban rather than rural territory. A variety of definitions, invoking population, population density, number of dwellings, economic function, and infrastructure, are used in national censuses to classify populations as urban. “Understanding the City studio” focused on an evidence-based approach for framing and analysing the various real-world Urban situations and problems. Overall, the studio made me develop broad-level understanding and be equipped with the necessary skills for becoming a professional urbanist. The precinct documented in this publication lies in Vastral, an eastern fringe in Ahmedabad. Under the guidance of my studio faculty, I am able to summarise my observations, analysis and understanding of the various themes that describe the characteristics of the one square kilometre of a fringe area in Vastral, Ahmedabad. The various themes that are used in the portfolio, describe the overall features of the precinct. The publication is about the characteristics of an urban fringe area in a city like Ahmedabad , which has been emerging as a ‘Residential Hub’ of the Fringes on Eastern Ahmedabad.
I would sincerely like to thank our studio guide, Prof. Subrangsu Sir, and our academic associate , Hussain k. for guiding and assisting me throughout the studio. I would also like to thank all the other professors of the foundation studio, 2018, for their critical inputs and comments which have led to my learning in the studio I would like to express my gratitude towards my family and friends for always supporting and assisting me. Lastly I would thank my fellow batch-mates, for their support and faith.
The information presented in this portfolio has been studied and collected by the author as a part of the “Understanding the City” studio, Faculty of Planning, CEPT University. Any omissions and errors are deeply regretted.
The city of Ahmedabad is located on the banks of Sabarmati which divides the city in two parts. In 2010 Ahmedabad was ranked third in Forbes’s list of fastest growing cities of the decade. It has emerged as an important economic and industrial hub of India, due to the substantial growth in the last decade. It is also known as the Manchester of the east, due to the presence of a lot of industries. During the nineteenth century, Ahmedabad had a lot of industries in the core city. After GIDC was formed in 1962, it was decided to shift these industries outside city boundaries, for which areas of Naroda, Nikol, Odhav and nearby areas were selected. Due to this a lot of labour class migration happened in this area and many communities settled in near-by gamtals or wadis like Vastral Gam, Amraiwadi, Narol Gam and others.
As AMC (Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation) boundaries expanded in 2002, all these industrial centres along with residential neighbourhoods became a part of AMC. This expansion made further growth in transport infrastructure. The S.P. Ring Road was built and started in 2004 which increased the connectivity to the city core. The T.P. Schemes were implemented in 2004-2008, which resulted into a rapid growth of residential neighbourhoods. The BRTS corridor (2009) and Metro Corridor (2014) has made these neighbourhoods more accessible to the near-by commercial centres. Income of the people of such neighbourhoods is reflected in the travel pattern as most of the people making a choice to reside in such areas, travel on an average about 5 - 6 kilometers for work. This indicates the trade-off people have made for housing affordability PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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The precinct of Vatral is located on the eastern fringe of Ahmedabad and is at merely 900m from S.P. Ring Road. The area has come into existence in the past 20 years and has been developing rapidly since the implementation of Vastral-Ramol T.P.Scheme (2006). It is mainly a residential precinct having row-houses as a predominant typology. The inclusion of Vastral in ‘RAH-III’ (Residential Affordable Housing) Zone in AUDA DP 2021 has increased the FSI upto 1.8 and the height restrictions have been changed too. As a result the built fabric of Vastral is developing with high number of residential apartments. The area has a great proximity to commercial centres like Asarwa, Odhav, Vatva and Amraiwadi.
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A man sitting on a ‘zula’ , reading a newspaper in front yard, a woman drying clothes in ‘atari’, old age people chit-chatting on a ‘khatiya’ just outside the houses, children playing with ‘Patang and Bhavara’ on terraces, these are the typical scenarios in Vastral Gam, although all these typical communal activities have been changed over the last decade. The parking in front yard leaves no space for zula, the ataris have been replaced with small cantilevered balconies, there is no space for khatiyas outside the houses and children rarely play outside their rooms. From being an undeveloped area known as ‘Vastral Gam’ and located in the outskirts of Eastern Ahmedabad, to the newly transformed and most affordable suburb on Eastern periphery, surely Vastral has witnessed a major transformation in the last decade.
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Demographical
Movements and Experiences
Majorly Gujarati communities, also communities from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan. Most of the people migrated here for small scale businss. More than half of population have business/offices in 2km radius. How have these individual communities have appropriated the precinct as per there individual needs.
The Metro corridor has changed all the pedestrian movements and experiences. Traffic movements and parking habits have been changed. The experience and visual connections between buildings, shops is no more. Conjecture. How have the pedestrian outlook of the street has changed should also be mentioned based on your interactions with the locals.
Physical People sold their agricultural plots to builders, some of them were partners with builders in development of high rise buildings.These plots had good numbers of mango and neem trees and grass cover where people used to take their cattle to feed them. Many houses have evolved with canopies or some provision as shed for their vehicles. Also houses have been evolved as G+1,G+2 structures.
Quality of Life
Socio-Cultural The junctions were major areas for all the commercial ,cultural and social activities. Due to Metro the location of these activities have been change. People used to sit outside of their houses, on a ‘khatiya’ beside streets. Now they cannot sit due to heavy traffic and other physical development. It has affected the level of social interaction over a period of time. Commercial shops, markets, food stall used to shut down around 7pm, now they are open till 11pm.
The development and growth has somewhat lead to traffic congestions, sound and air pollution, increase in costs of land. It has been beneficial for increase in commercial activities in the area, the new facilities and amenities have added up for better life style. Some of your points contradict to what you want to convey so try and resolve those errors.
Ecological
Current issues and needs No AMTS bus stops in inner areas. People have to take long walks to buy goods and other products due to change in location of markets. During Metro construction business was very low for 18-20 months. Development of slums on government allotted parking plots and party plots.
Agricultural lands have been converted to residential colonies. No of water ponds have been converted into lakes and developing gardens, parks along them. Construction of a lake behind Eklavya School
PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
Transportation Expansion of Vastral Main Road in 2006, lead to growth of various commercial outlets along the road. Increase in No of AMTS Bus stops ( 2008 ). Metro has been started in 2019 , which has divided the main road, Only phase 1 is started, so the life and activities are not majorly affected by Metro
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The Precinct shows a highly residential character having high number of mixed use buildings along the Vastral Road. These mixed use buildings are predominantly residential having commercial outlets on ground floors. Also the older gamtal area has not been redveloped for last 15 years even having high potential for development. Vastral has high number of vacant plots as compared to other residential neighbourhoods like Amraiwadi and Ramol, which creates a good scope future development. It has been included in ‘R-I’ Residential Zone in AUDA DP-2021. Permissible FSI : 2.7 Permissible Height : G+9
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Row-house is the predominant typology in Vastral. These row-houses were built 15 to 20 years ago, when T.P. Scheme was being implemented in Vastral-Ramol area. Over the years, many of the rowhouses along the Vastral Road and Arpan Road have been converted into commercial shops and people have moved to the newly constructed apartments in near-by areas. Apartments usually have 4 to 6 floors and many new such low to medium rise apartments are under construction in the region. Vastral Gamtal was developed after Indira Awas Yojna (1975) and since then the government has been providing subsidies for the households. Although there was a huge hike in land prices, no policies or rehabilitation programmes were carried out for the development of Gamtals. Even after having high potential, due to poverty people cannot develop their land and properties and the government has not implemented any kind of planning activity, as a result the gamtals are not developing at their highest potential
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The precinct has 55% typology as row-houses which were developed more than 15 years ago. Over the years, the encroachment has resulted into a denser fabric and higher ground coverage. The newly developing low to medium sizes apartments, office buildings have moderate ground coverage with high FSI consumption. As earlier FSI was upto 1.2 to 1.8, the vertical rise was not possib;le beyond certain heights. The Precinct has been included in R-I zone in AUDA DP 2021 which has a permissible FSI upto 2.7. It would help to consume higher FSI and ground coverage PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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Vastral being a transforming fringe area has relatively lower built % as compared to industrial hubs like Odhav or denser areas like Maninagar. The areas on fringes usually have similar built-open ratio due to their developing nature. PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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As Vastral has relatively less road netwrok, it has big block sizes and lesser road density. Although it has bigger block areas around 600 sq.m, they are still comforatble for walking distances. The row-house which were built after implementation of T.P.Scheme in 2006 have relatively smaller block areas as compared to the newly developing residential apartments. PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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Streets in Vastral have average ROW of 18m, but the effective road carriage width is 6m due to high % of encroachment. The median of Vastral road is encroached by cows for the most of the time. As it does not have any footpaths, street vendors tend to encorach the road during peak hours. Also the people living in row-houses or gamtals do not have any parking facilities, hence they use road sides for parking purposes. It creates heavy traffic congestion around Nirant Cross Road during morning and evening peak hours.
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The streets in Vastral are 65% encroached by parking, street vendors or cows during different times of the day. As a result the effective carriage width decreases. As the area has no medians for roads, it becomes unsafe for children and older citizen to cross the road during peak hours, also the vehicles and pedestrain movements change due to lack of median and footpath. As most the buildings have commercial outlets on ground floors, many 2-wheelers and LCVs are parked on the main roads creating unecessary traffic jams during peak hours. PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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The Nirant char rasta, Swami Narayan temple and its surroundings, Suryam junction and bazaar, these are most happening public spaces in Vastral-Ramol area. These all are the time based public realms where use and activities change throughout the day. These are also the spaces which are in a comfortable walking zone - 400-700m ( Walking in Indian cities analysis by Central Public Works Department -India) to people living in Vastral. Public realms in Vastral are naturally created along the major streets and they are in proximity to the residential areas. Also the natural surveillance throughout the day, makes a space more safe and public. The vibrancy of a space makes it more public and the ‘Publicness’ of the area makes it the centre for economical, social and cultural interactions and such centres encourage people in discovering the ‘other’ , the people who are different than ourselves.
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In Vastral, road levels are not maintained foor smooth functioning of drainage. Aslo most of the catchpits have been blocked on Vastral Road due to construction of Metro Corridor which causes heavy water logging during monsoon. The internal roads do not have catchpits or strom water drains which results into water logging. PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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The average monthly income in the precinct is 56,600Rs which is far more compared to the average monthly income in Ahmedabad which is 20,900Rs (Census of India,2011). 72% of the people fall under middle income group and remaing are those who reside in gamtals.
As observed in the precinct, generally households below an income of 10,000 INR cannot afford to live formally in the precinct. They prefer slums, or other informal settlements. We can see households having similar incomes in slums, public housing apartments as well as row houses. People earning 20,000 – 30,000 INR can be found in row houses with larger area, as well as in relatively cheaper 2 bhk apartments. Semi-detahced are exclusive for the higher income groups (> 1,00,000 INR) in the precinct.
Income of the people of the neighbourhood is reflected in the travel pattern as most of the people making a choice to reside in Vastral travel on an average about 7 kilometers for work and 3 kilometers for education. This indicates the trade off people have made for housing affordability in search of better quality of life PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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The expenditure and savings as per typologies : Gamtals : Depends on income generated for the particular month Apartments : 20-22,000Rs ( 50-55% of Income) Savings : 12-14,000Rs ( 30-35% of Income) Row-houses : 25-30,000Rs ( 65-70% of Income) Savings : 10-12,000Rs ( 25-30% of Income) Semi- Detached : 20-22,000Rs ( 50-55% of Income) Savings : 20-25,000Rs ( 40-45% of Income)
The choices for housing typology vary as the income changes. Different income groups have different housing choices. As income decreases the housing typology changes from semi-detached to gamtal. It can be inferred that per capita space consumption decreases with a decrease in income. PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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Longer work trips and very low frequency of AMTS buses, makes more people use private vehicles Also Lack of efficient public transport system in the area and more number of private vehicles owned by people Trip Rate – Work
: 1.10 (Trips/Capita/Day)
Trip Rate – Education : 0.95 (Trips/Capita/Day)
Most of the precinct consists of low (<15,000 INR/month) and middle (40,000 – 50,000 INR/month) income group. About 55% of the travel trips are done by two wheelers for work and about 42% of the educational trips are done by walking. 20% of the lower income group population do not own any type of vehicles, While traveling population from all other income groups have around 70% ownership in two wheelers. About 30% population in all income groups own cycles, other than higher income groups. Higher income groups have around 55% ownership in cars. By analyzing the precinct in terms of walking distance to reach any bus stop in the precinct, it is found that only 15% of area falls under 2 min walking distance. About 50% of the precinct are falls in the zone of 8-10 mins, while around 35% of the precinct falls in more than 10 mins walking distance. It is observed that most of the people who require public transport (low income groups) usually do not fall in the 2 mins walking range, and hence less people in this category choose public transport. Most of the medium-high and higher income group fall in 2 min range who do own their own means of transport. PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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Vastral has a high number of residential units, hence shows less number of jobs per 100sq.m. The job densities for the precinct and Ahmedabad are 2.85 and 1.15 per 100 sq.m respectively (Census of India, 2011). As a result it has a 30% higher employment than Ahmedabad. Established job centres like schools in the precinct provide more jobs per 100 sq.m compared to residential job centres. Vending has high job density with 55.56 jobs per 100sq.m PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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The residential jobs consist of mainly domestic jobs which employ high number of casual workers. The jobs in institutional category are mostly regular due to fixed working hours and high salaries. The vending shares highest number of casual jobs due to the unpredictable nature and longer working hours. As 30% of the population of Vastral resides in Gamtal areas, the number of Casual workers is quite more compared to other areas like Odhav and Vatva (Source: Household survey samples). Also the increasing numbers of institutions like schools, hospitals and mixed use commercial complexes have created regular jobs to a greater extent. As a result, more employment opportunities have been created over the years which attracts near-by residents.
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Vastral having tremendous potential for development had few constraints due to development plan regulations and other aspects of the area. The future of Vastral lies in tackling these constraints to achieve a highest growth rate of development.
The Growth Pattern and constraints Although there are certain constraints for development, the precinct has witnessed rapid urbanization for last 5 to 6 years due to growing infrastructure and amenities
The Northern part of the precinct has highly densed older row-houses which consume very less FSI with high ground coverage
The newly built Metro Corriodor has changed the face of the area. The land rates are higher with increased connectivity. New commercial complexes developing along Metro Corridor in last 3 years The Eastern part of the precinct comprises of Vastral Gamtal which is the oldest settlement of the precinct and has not been developed for more than 25 years
The S.P. Ring Road is just 900m from the precinct and its an important road for the connectivity. The Precinct has been growing towards S.P. Ring Road in the South-East parts Saurabh Mehta PG190871 I SemI 1PG190871 I Understanding I Sem 1the I Understanding City - Ahmedabad the City - Ahmedabad
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The Vastral has a proximity to commercial and industrial hubs like Asarwa, Nikol, Amraiwadi and Odhav, Vatva GIDC areas. The area has a varied housing choices for middle income group who are migrating to the suburbs from old and densed city areas in search of better quality of life. Vastral offers affordable and bigger spaces comparing to other already established residentail hubs like Maninagar, Khadia, Naroda and Odhav on Eastern Part of the city. Also Vastral is transforming into a modern and contemporary built form. From row houses and semi detached houses which were present earlier, the precinct is now seeing more of highrise apartments. In the last decade the vacant lands have developed majorly into highrise apartments. The older 2 storied row houses are now being redeveloped into the newer residential form. As a result, people from the nearby areas are making a choice to settle in the Vastral neighbourhood. This is bringing a change in the socio-economic fabric of the precinct, as the more middle income groups are settling down here as compared to lower and lower middle income groups. This in-turn is bringing the change in the in the related fields such as transport infrastructure, Social and Education Amenities. It is not so far when Vastral will be known as the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Residential Hubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the eastern fringes of Ahmedabad. Saurabh Mehta PG190871 I SemI 1PG190871 I Understanding I Sem 1the I Understanding City - Ahmedabad the City - Ahmedabad
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Saurabh Mehta I PG190871 I Sem 1 I Understanding the City - Ahmedabad
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Websites T.P Scheme 106: Vastral-Ramol (AUDA Website) Expansion of Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services (AMTS) – AMTS Website Construction of Metro Corridor (2019) – Gujarat Metro Website Population increase from 2001 to 2011 (Wikipedia and Census of India) Google Earth Imagery AUDA Website GMTL Metro Website GTPUD
Reference Books Urban Management and Governance by Tathagata Chatterji (2010) Urban open spaces in historical perspective by Barbara Stark (2012) Public Space and Life in an Indian City by Salila Venka (2014) Life between buildings by Jan Gehl (2011) Walking in Indian cities analysis by Central Public Works Department -India Ahmedabad : From Royal city to Megacity - Author : Achyut Yagnik – Year 2011 ) The built environment and spatial form by L. Lawrenece (1990) Making Indian Cities by Rahul Malhotra (2000)
Other Sources Residents interviews taken in the precinct Household Surveys Job Establishment Surveys