Schools in Ahmedabad are run either by the municipal corporation, or privately by entities, trusts and corporations. Most schools are affiliated with the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board. A few schools are affiliated to the Central Board for Secondary Education, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, International Baccalaureate and National Institute of Open School. Among them prominent ones are H.B.Kapadia, Delhi Public School, AIS etc. A large number of colleges in the city are affiliated with Gujarat University. Other deemed universities in Ahmedabad include the Nirma University of Science & Technology and the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University.The Gujarat Vidyapith was established in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi without a charter from the British Raj and became a deemed university in 1963.Other institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management, the Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management, the National Institute of Design, the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, the Mudra Institute of Communications, the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, B.J. Medical College, NHL Municipal Medical College are located in Ahmedabad.
The Gujarat University clock tower in Ahmedabad
L.D. College of Engineering is a premier engineering college in Gujarat State, set with the objectives of imparting higher education in various fields of engineering. At present it runs 14 undergraduate, 12-post graduate and 4 part-time programs.
Center for Environmental Planning and Technology is a premier academic institute located in Ahmedabad. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes in the areas of natural and built environment and related disciplines. Recognised as one of the finest institutes of learning in the country, CEPT University currently offers three undergraduate degree programs and nineteen postgraduate programs in the fields of design and architecture, planning and public policy, arts and humanities, technology, geomatics and space applications, environment and climate change studies,Infrastructure Engineering and Management .
Many national academic and scientific institutions, such as the Physical Research Laboratory, the Indian Space Research Organisation, were established in the 1960s largely through the efforts of prominent astrophysicist and industrialist Vikram Sarabhai.The Ahmedabad Management Association is a notable institution established to impart management training and experience to young students and professionals. The campus was opened with a plan to offer 100 courses in various technical disciplines.The Indian Institute of Public Health offers in-service training and courses in public health besides assisting the government in health related activities.
The National Institute of Design (NID) is internationally acclaimed as one of the foremost multi-disciplinary institutions in the field of design education and research. NID has been a pioneer in industrial design education after Bauhaus and Ulm in Germany and is known for its pursuit of design excellence to make Designed in India, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (also known as IIMA), was ranked as the top business school in India according to the Business Today.B-School Rankings in 2007-08 and the ET B-school Survey 2007.It is now labelled as the toughest MBA programmes in the world to gain admission to as over 200,000 people apply each year for the entrance exam to get into roughly 250 places.
Air
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport
The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport is located 15 km from the city centre and 8 km from Ahmedabad Railway station and Bus stand. It serves both domestic and international flights to and from Ahmedabad and the neighboring cities of Surendranagar, Mehsana, and Nadiad. The airport connects the city with destinations across India and the world (Abu Dhabi, Doha, Jeddah, Dubai, Bangkok, Frankfurt, Kabul, Kuwait, London, Muscat, Newark, Chicago, Singapore, Sharjah, Dammam, Riyadh, Hongkong, Paris, Shanghai).
It is the busiest airport in Gujarat, and the eighth busiest in India with an average of 250 aircraft movements a day. In 2008 the airport served 5,372,259 passengers.It is expected to handle six million passengers in 2010 and nine million in 2012, including both domestic and international passengers. Nearly all domestic airlines serve Ahmedabad, as do several international ones. A new international terminal coast of $31.6 million has been built to handle increased international air traffic.
Rail
Ahmedabad Railway Station (ADI) is a major station on Western Railway and one of the busiest stations in the country.
Ahmedabad is one of the six operating divisions of the Western Railway.Railway lines connect the city to all towns in Gujarat and other major Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Indore, Bhopal, Lucknow, Jaipur, Jabalpur, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Nagpur etc. The Ahmedabad Railway Station, locally known as Kalupur Station is the city's main terminus; Ahmedabad's other stations are Maninagar, Vatva, Gandhigram, Asarva, Chandlodia, Kali gam, Vastrapur, Sabarmati, Sarkhej, Naroda, Aamli.
With the help of Ministry of Railways, state government has planned a sub-urban rail system for Ahmedabad on the existing lines of Indian Railways between Barjedi in south to Kalol in north and from Kalupur to Naroda.
RoadNational Highway 8, linking Delhi to Mumbai, passes though Ahmedabad connecting it with Gandhinagar, Delhi and Mumbai. The National Highway 8C links Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar. It is connected to Vadodara through National Expressway 1, a 94 km (58 mi) long highway with only two exits. This expressway is part of the Golden Quadrilateral project.
Ahmedabad's main traffic arteries are the Ashram Road, C. G. Road, Relief Road and SG Highway. The SG Highway or Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway is also known as Ahmedabad's growth symbol. Transportation For Gandhinagar is available for 24 hours from SG highway. Auto rickshaws, Share Autos and buses are the most popular forms of public transport. The Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) runs the local bus service in the city. In 2005, AMTS began a drive to convert all of its petrol and diesel engine buses to run on compressed natural gas engines to reduce the effects of air pollution. AMTS runs 750 buses.Bicycles and motorcycles are a popular medium of transport with the city's young people and students.
In 2001, Ahmedabad was ranked as the topmost polluted city in India, out of 85 cities, by the Central Pollution Control Board. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board gave auto rickshaw drivers an incentive of Rs. 10,000 to convert all 37,733 auto rickshaws in Ahmedabad to cleaner burning compressed natural gas to reduce pollution. As a result, in 2008, Ahmedabad was ranked as 50th most polluted city in India.
Ahmedabad BRTSNehru Nagar—Shivranjani Crossroad BRTS Corridor
Ahmedabad BRTS is a Bus rapid transit system for the city, maintained by the Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL). Ahmedabad BRTS is the most successful BRTS project in India compare to Delhi and Pune. Ahmedabad BRTS wins the 2010 Most Sustainable Transport Award in the world. A part of the first phase connecting RTO to Pirana was inaugurated by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on 14 October 2009 and the second half of the first phase connecting Chandranagar to Pushpa Kunj gate at Kankaria was inaugurated on 25 December 2009.[80] Remaining phases are under construction and will be operational by mid 2010.
The BRTS is modelled on the international standards and proved to be highly affordable and effective in operation. It has revolutionised the system of public transport in the city. The buses are comfortable and technically advanced. The system has dedicated corridors running along the middle of the city roads in which no other vehicles are allowed.
Ahmedabad Metro
Gujarat Government and Ahmedabad Mahanagar Sevasadan had initiated the Ahmedabad Metro feasibility study.
As per latest development, the state government has proposed that 10.9 KM East-West metro line will be shifted from Income Tax—Shahpur Darwaza—Delhi Darwaza—Prem Darwaza—Kalupur Line towards Relief Road and wants it to be underground. Special Hydraulic platform with a small gradient that would gradually take a stationary metro train to the tunnel level on Relief Road—Kalupur stretch is also being proposed for this line.
The architectural history of Ahmedabad stretches across the last millennium. The Sultanate fused Hindu craftsmanship with Persian architecture, giving rise to the Indo-Saracenic style.[citation needed] Many mosques in the city are built in this fashion.After independence modern buildings came up in Ahmedabad when architects were given commissions in the city like Louis Kahn who designed the Indian Institute of Management; Le Corbusier who designed the Shodhan and Sarabhai Villas, the Sanskar Kendra and the Mill Owner's Association; and Buckminister Fuller who designed the Calico Dome. B. V. Doshi came to the city from Paris to supervise Le Corbusier's works and later set up the School of Architecture. His local works include Sangath, the Doshi-Hussain Gufa and the School of Architecture. Charles Correa, who became a partner of Doshi's, designed the Gandhi Ashram and Achyut Kanvinde the Indian Textile Industries Research
Association. Christopher Charles Benninger's first work, the Alliance Francaise, is located in the Ellis Bridge area. Hasmukh C. Patel, and his son Bimal Patel, are architects from the city having designed the St. Xavier's High School Loyola Hall, Gujarat High Court and the Ahmedabad Management Association. Anant Raje designed major additions to Louis Kahn's Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad campus, namely the Ravi Mathai Auditorium and KLMD.
Sidi Sayed Jali is one of the most famous mosques in Gujarat. The mosque was built in the last year of the existence of Sultanate of Gujarat. The mosque is entirely arcuated and is famous for carved ten stone latticework windows (jalis) on the side and rear arches. The buildings called "Haveli" usually have unique carvings and can be seen in ancient pole (narrow streets) in Ahmedabad.
Kankaria is the biggest lake in Ahmedabad (in earliar days it used to be known by the name "Qutub Hojj" or "Hauj-e-Kutub"). Many kings, or badshah, used to bathe in this lake.[citation needed] It has an approximate circumference of 1.4 miles (2.3 km) and is located in the southern part of the city in Maninagar area, which is the most densely populated suburb of the city.
Ahmedabad has a hot semi-arid climate , with marginally less rain than required for a tropical savanna climate. There are three main seasons: summer, monsoon and winter. Aside from the monsoon season, the climate is extremely dry. The weather is hot through the months of March to June—the average summer maximum is 41 °C (106 °F), and the average minimum is 27 °C (81 °F). From November to February, the average maximum temperature is 30 °C (86 °F), the average minimum is 15 °C (59 °F), and the climate is extremely dry. Cold northerly winds are responsible for a mild chill in January. The southwest monsoon brings a humid climate from mid-June to mid-September. The average annual rainfall is about 800 millimetres (31 in), but infrequent heavy torrential rains cause local rivers to flood and it is not uncommon for droughts to occur when the monsoon does not extend as far west as usual. The highest temperature recorded is 47 °C (117 °F) and the lowest is 6 °C (43 °F).[29] On 21 May 2010, the mercury touched 42.8 °C (109.0 °F), which was the highest temperature recorded in Ahmedabad in forty years. In recent years, Ahmedabad has suffered from increasing air, water and soil pollution from neighbouring industrial areas, the city’s textile mills and lack of awareness regarding cleanliness among citizens.
Vastrapur Lake
Ahmedabad is divided by the Sabarmati into two physically distinct eastern and western regions. The eastern bank of the river houses the old city, which includes the central town of Bhadra. This part of Ahmedabad is characterized by packed bazaars, the clustered and barricaded pol system of close clustered buildings, and numerous places of worship. It houses the main railway station, the General Post Office, and few buildings of the Muzaffarid and British eras. The colonial period saw the expansion of the city to the western side of Sabarmati, facilitated by the construction of Ellis Bridge in 1875 and later with the modern Nehru Bridge. This part of the city houses educational institutions, modern buildings, well-planned residential areas, shopping malls, multiplexes and new business districts centred around roads such as Ashram Road, C. G. Road & Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway.
Auda to add one more ring road in Ahmedabad on top of 2 ring roads alrady existing in the city. The basic motive behind the ring road is better connectivity to Sanand, and diverting the regional traffic that enters city roads. Keeping that, and the fact of increasing vehicular traffic in mind, the proposed ring road will be at least 300 feet in width. Under the proposed plan, the ring road would begin at around 4 to 5 km from the existing 132 ft ring road," said a senior official from the town planning department.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as Ashapalli. At that time, Karandev I, the Solanki ruler of Anhilwara, waged a successful war against the Bhil king of Ashaval, and established a city called Karnavati located at the present time area of Maninagar close to the river Sabarmati. Solanki rule lasted until the 13th century, when Gujarat came under the control of the Vaghela dynasty of Dholka and Karnavati was conquered by the Sultanate of Delhi. In 1411, the rule of the Muzaffarid dynasty was established in Gujarat. According to legend, Sultan Ahmed Shah, while camping on the banks of the River Sabarmati, saw a hare chasing a dog. Impressed by this act of bravery, the Sultan, who had been looking for a place to build his new capital, decided to locate the capital at this forest area close by to Karnavati right on the river bank and christened it AHMEDABAD. The incident is popularly described in a one liner saying "Jab kutte pe sassa aaya, tab Badshah ne shaher basaya" .
In 1487, Mahmud Begada, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, fortified the city with an outer wall 10 km (6.2 mi) in circumference and consisting of twelve gates, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements. In 1535 Humayun briefly occupied Ahmedabad after capturing Champaner when the ruler of Gujarat Bahadur Shah fled to DIU. Ahmedabad was then reoccupied by the Muzaffarid dynasty until 1573 when Gujarat was conquered by the Mughal emperor Akbar. During the Mughal reign, Ahmedabad became one of the Empire's thriving centres of trade, mainly in textiles, which were exported to as far as Europe. The Mughal ruler Shahjahan spent the prime of his life in the city, sponsoring the construction of the Moti Shahi Mahal in Shahibaug. During a drought, the Deccan Famine of 1630–32 affected the city, as did famines in 1650 and 1686. Ahmedabad remained the provincial headquarter of the Mughals until 1758, when Mughals surrendered the city to the Marathas.
During Maratha governance, the city lost some of its past importance, and was at the center of contention between two Maratha clans—The Peshwa of Poona and the Gaekwad of Baroda.On February 18, 1780, during the First Anglo-Maratha War, a British force under James Hartley stormed and captured Ahmedabad, but it was handed back to the Marathas at the end of the war. The British East India Company definitely took over the city in 1818 as a part of the conquest of India.
A military cantonment was established in 1824 and a municipal government in 1858. In 1864, a railway link between Ahmedabad and Mumbai was established by the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway , making Ahmedabad an important junction in the traffic and trade between northern and southern India. Large number of people migrated from rural areas to work in textile mills, establishing a robust industry.
The Sabarmati Ashram, home of Mahatma Gandhi
The Indian independence movement developed roots in the city when, in 1915, Mahatma Gandhi established two ashram—the Kochrab Ashram near Paldi in 1915 and the Satyagraha Ashram (now Sabarmati Ashram) on the banks of the Sabarmati in 1917—that would become centers of intense nationalist activities. During the mass protests against the Rowlatt Act in 1919, textile workers burned down 51 government buildings across the city in protest at a British attempt to extend wartime regulations after the First World War. In the 1920s, textile workers and teachers went on strike, demanding civil rights and better pay and working conditions. In 1930, Gandhi initiated the Salt Satyagraha from Ahmedabad by embarking from his ashram on the famous Dandi Salt March. The city administration and economic institutions were rendered functionless by the large masses of people who took to the streets in peaceful protests in the early 1930s, and again in 1942 during the Quit India movement. Following independence and the partition of India in 1947, the city was scarred by intense communal violence that broke out between Hindus and Muslims.
1960, Ahmedabad had become a metropolis with classical and colonial European styled buildings, lining the city’s thoroughfares and was chosen as the capital of Gujarat state after the bifurcation of the State of Bombay on 1 May 1960. During that period, a large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city, making it a major center of higher education, science and technology.[citation needed] Ahmedabad's economic base was diversified with the establishment of heavy and chemical industries in its vicinity around the same period. But the growth in the next two decades was punctuated by political events in and around the city. In 1974, Ahmedabad occupied the centre stage in national politics with the launch of the Nav Nirman agitation — a protest against a 20% hike in the hostel food fees at the L.D. College of Engineering that snowballed into a mass agitation against general corruption to remove Chimanbhai Patel, then chief minister of Gujarat.In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes. On 26 January 2001 a devastating earthquake struck the city, centred near Bhuj, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale. As many as 50 multistory buildings collapsed, killing 752 people and devastating the city's infrastructure. The following year, Gurajat violence between Hindus and Muslims spread to Ahmedabad, paralysing the city for more than two months. The crisis resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,044 people across the state. The displacement of thousands of Muslims led to the erection of refugee camps around the city. On 26 July 2008 a series of seventeen bomb blasts rocked the city, killing and injuring several people.
In recent years, the effects of liberalization of the Indian economy has energized the city's economy towards tertiary sector activities like commerce, communication, construction activities.The city has witnessed the establishment of scientific and service industries, the expansion of the information technology sector, and significant improvements in transportation and communications.[citation needed] Ahmedabad's population is growing, which has resulted in a construction and housing boom.
