Ahmedabad to be India's 2nd biggest metro

Call it the big bang effect. Soon, aapnu Amdavad will be second only to Delhi and way bigger than Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore.

For, size matters and metropolitan Ahmedabad is set to touch the magical 10,000 sq km mark. On the anvil is an Ahmedabad Metropolitan Region (AMR) plan that will stretch the city’s limits up to as far as Viramgam, Mehsana, Prantij, Petlad, Umreth, Tarapur and Nalsarovar. A big leap, given that just two years ago Ahmedabad was just a 198 sq km city when it gobbled up another 300 sq km to emerge as a mega city spread over 498 sq km and housing 55 lakh people. In the 19th century, Ahmedabad was just a 10 sq km walled city. But today, AMR is set to emerge as a mammoth metro encompassing parts of five districts — Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Kheda, Anand and Mehsana — conceptualised on the lines of the National Capital Region that’s carved out of three states — Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

And just like NCR Development Authority lords over 30,000 sq km area as a policy making and planning body, Ahmedabad Metropolitan Region Development Authority will be responsible for planning growth in the region without confronting the authority and functioning of panchayats. Sources said while the AMR Bill is being drafted, a notification would be enough to kickstart the process.

With big ticket projects like Tata’s Nano parking next door, special investment regions (SIRs) in Dholera set to take off and the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor gearing up to drive through, Ahmedabad is dreaming big. For a metro emerging as the new centre of gravity for global investments, Ahmedabad is set to spread its wings from being a one-airport city to a metro boasting of five airports at Fedara, Matar, Vataman, Tarapur and Bagodara. To begin with, Ahmedabad metro will be powered by four immediate growth centres — Sanand, Dehgam, Kalol and Mehemdabad. Later, it would also encompass seven new urban centres — Anand, Tarapur, Nadiad, Matar in the south-east of the metro region and Kadi, Viramgam, Detroj in the north-west
region.