‘Ahmedabad has emerged as a centre of excellence’

Former municipal commissioner, Ahmedabad, Keshav Varma, hopes other cities in India which are in a relatively poor state, will follow Ahmedabad's fine example in urban development.

Just returned from St. Petersburg where Mr. Putin and Mr. Zoellick hosted the historic Global Tiger Summit to save tigers in the wild. Only about 3000 wild tigers remain in 13 tiger range countries in Asia. The conference was attended by five Prime Ministers and more than 13 Ministers of Environment and Forestry. Tigers have become the face of biodiversity and an iconic indicator of the loss of habitat and wilderness. Leaders across the world called for an equilibrium and balance in the development paradigm.

St. Petersburg is an elegant city, perhaps more beautiful than Paris. With broad walkways and canals, even with frightfully low temperatures the city rejoices on its footpaths. And it is often difficult to find a place in a restaurant at 1:00 am. The city was built by Peter the Great in 1703 and its charm and character have outlasted the American car dominant city planning. That concept is dead and cities are pursuing a concept of planning which is focused on pedestrians and on wide footpaths.

Talking of footpaths, I do recall the interesting dynamics when the CG road was being planned. It took some time for planners to realise that "people" were more important than cars. And this is the new trend in cities with walk ways, pedestrianisation and non-motorised transport and an intimacy of development getting top priority. This is the difference between CG road and Ashram Road. The days when 120-foot roads ran through the city are gone. It is a tribute to the planning of St. Petersburg that they created an intimate city environment where people could socialise and have a sense of intimacy.

You asked me to reminisce. Well, the other day I ran into Chelsea Clinton at the Bombay Club (the Clintons loved it) and reminded her of her visit to Ahmedabad with America's First Lady in 1997. She recalled all the fun she had and their meeting with SEWA but, most interestingly, she recalled the visit to the Kankaraia Zoo and the tiger. That was nice to know as now that I am also the Program Director of the Global Tiger Initiative launched by our President in 2008.

I also recall Mr. Nelson Mandela's visit to Gandhi Ashram. I was escorting him and he asked that he be left alone for some time. When I came back to him I could see that he had tears in his eyes. For him it was overwhelming to be in the same room as Bapu; after all during his own incarceration he took solace and inspiration from Gandhiji's life.

It is the people of Ahmedabad who make the city special. I recall the warm support and affection that we all received. An incident is vivid in my memory. Our finances were tuning around and the corporation decided to improve roads. Most of the work, because of the heat and the traffic, was done at night. We were constructing the road to IIM and had watched the bitumen being rolled until 3:00 a.m. Hot bitumen, after the seal coating, has to cool down before traffic can be allowed on it. We had made arrangements to isolate the area. On reaching home I received a call from an IIM student informing me that the guards were not there anymore and that the students of IIM had formed a cordon to prevent any vehicle from running on the road until it had all settled down. That was amazing - young professionals coming together to protect their assets! I believe they stayed on until 6am.

I recall the golden jubilee on our independence. We had decided to celebrate it by lighting diyas and having cultural events around the city, and the one centered at Kankaria. Mr. Dixit, our deputy commissioner always wanted to do it. So the evening came and the city kind of lit up and celebrated. Thousands of people filed to Kankaria and I was stuck in a traffic jam on Ashram Road at 3am. What a night it was!

My wife was recently in Ahmedabad after a rather oppressing stay in Delhi where she lost her voice to pollution. She literally heaved a sigh of relief and could hardly stop talking about the river front development and the new BRTS and how clean the city was looking- a great tribute to the leaders and Administrators of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.