'2 States' brings Ahmedabad centre to a standstill

Thousands of commuters were stranded for more than five hours on Wednesday on the busy stretch between Ellisbridge and Astodia Darwaza, owing to a film shooting near Gol Limda Circle.

According to the police, the crew of upcoming film ‘2 States’ – based on Chetan Bhagat’s book – had acquired permission to shoot at a ‘bhajiya house’ near Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) office. “The permission was given from 7 am to 5 pm. They were shooting inside Gol Limda Bhajiya House, not on the road,” said LM Thakor, police inspector of Khadia, who was present at the location along with more than 100 policemen of Khadia, Karanj and Gaekwad Haveli police stations.

However, curious residents and passers-by started gathering to have a glimpse of the stars. The cops even tied ropes to control the crowd from entering the main road, but the crowd swelled as the news of shooting spread to surrounding areas.

“Even the commuters stopped for a while to see the shooting, without caring for traffic. They parked their bikes on the wrong side,” said Thakor.

“I got stuck at 11:45 am while going towards Astodia on my bike. The jam extended to Ellisbridge,” said Mahendra Kamble, a regular commuter. “When I somehow reached Gol Limda, I realised that the chaos was due to film shooting. On my way back at 4:45 pm, I once again got stuck in traffic at Astodia. I wasted more than two hours,” he said.

Due to the jam, many officials had to walk to AMC premises in Danapith. “My colleagues and I had to walk from Lal Darwaza at 10.30 am to Danapith,” said Yatindra Naik, manager of e-governance department.

After learning about the situation, MF Dastoor, chief fire officer, Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services, sent a crane to lift a vehicle parked by the shooting crew on a road near the AMC office.

“The narrow road was further narrowed by the parked van, which blocked the traffic coming from Manek Chowk to Gol Limda via Danapith fire station. As it was not possible to move the van in heavy traffic jam, we lifted the van through our crane and parked it inside the AMC office. But the main road was totally blocked and lanes of jammed vehicles could be seen on both sides of the road from Sarangpur to Ellisbridge throughout the day,” said Dastoor.