TRANSFORMATION OF MY PRECINCT: DETERMINANTS & EFFECTS

KAVAN PATHAK

GROUP E5

PRECINCT 01

EXERCISE 2.5

The precinct of Shahibaug spans a rich history of over 500 years. The first real
development in the area took place when Shah Jahan built the Palace in 1622 along with the
royal gardens. This place was later used as a Raj Bhawan when Gujarat got separated from
Bombay state, hence a lot of administrative institutions got established in the area. Around
the same time wealthy millowners also moved to the area to avoid hustle and bustle of the
walled city. These two factors combined drove the growth of the area in the mid-20th
century. A bit later cantonment area, police quarters, airport etc. came up in the vicinity
furthering growth of the area. Huge bungalows thus made way for more denser built fabric.
Institutions such as civil hospital, Rajasthan hospital, AAO attracted employment
opportunities which gave fuel to the residential market. Thus the dense built fabric now
included low rise apartments as well. Due to expansion of the city limits more and more
people started flocking to Shahibaug, it gradually resulted to loss of green spaces and
infrastructure changes such as widening of dafnala road, construction of Shahibaug flyover
and more recently the river front project, these helped ease the traffic load and fostered
added connectivity that helps in driving growth. In last 20 years lots of high rise residential
apartments can be seen along the airport road and new commercial areas are seen near
Raksha circle. Proximity to healthcare, schools, employment, recreation, physiological needs
is what makes Shahibaug a holistic residential area where residents can access their needs
quickly and easily and is one of the main reasons why it has developed in last 20 years and
will continue to do so with projects such as riverfront being built and proposed ones such as
the ashram road CBD in near vicinity.