City’s heritage to get disaster protection

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has geared up to protect the heritage structures of the Walled City from any kind of disaster that may befall it in the future.

The civic body has decided to prepare a disaster management plan and has already joined hands with the government-run National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), New Delhi, for this.

This project will enable the AMC to take immediate action in case of any natural or manmade disasters, ensuring that the city’s heritage is well taken care of, said Asit Vora, chairman of the standing committee of the AMC.

The project will assess the possibilities of disasters such as earthquakes or outbreaks of fire, and the damages likely to be caused. In fact, it is for the first time that a project aiming to protect a city’s heritage is being implemented in the country, said Vora. The total cost of preparing the project is pegged at Rs10.6 lakh, of which Rs5.3 lakh will be expended by the AMC.

The heritage and fire department of the AMC has been working on assessing the risk in the Walled City for a long period. “It has taken around five years to identify risk factors in the Walled City that could cause disaster,” said Debashis Nayak, advisor of the heritage programme of the AMC.

Increasing commercialisation has turned a large number of residential buildings in the Pols of the Old City into godowns. The goods stored in these warehouses can even lead to an outbreak of fire, and the thought of this has compelled the AMC to ban most of these warehouses in the area, said a source close to the development.

Most buildings in the Pols have been constructed in a way that it can resist the tremors of the earthquake. This is why the walled city was less affected during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, said Nayak. However, even if one of the buildings is demolished, it can affect the strength of the adjoining buildings. “People are still not aware that they need to seek the permission before demolishing any building,” added Nayak.

The walled city area built according to Vastu Shastra and not on modern lines. The implementation of the structural aspect of the town planning scheme will require displacement of thousands of people which is not possible, so the disaster management plan has been designed accordingly.

“The project is still in the initial phase and project formation is yet to be decided,” said Somkumar Shukla, project officer of Urban Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction Programme - Disaster Risk Management (UERVP-DRM). The heritage department along with NIDM will prepare a film to spread awareness among the people with regard to the risks of likely disaster in the walled city. This film will be shown in various areas of the Old City, said the source.