PLANNING

• The city was planned and implemented between 1965-1970 by two Indian
planners, H.K.Mewada and P.M.Apte, and an influential group of architects
from Ahmedabad with active support from some industrialists.
• The supporters later tried to usurp the job by bringing in American architect
Louis Kahn, who was in Ahmedabad to design the buildings of the
management institute.
• Planned as the administrative capital of the state, the current and future
population employed in state government offices was distributed in 30
residential sectors around the State Assembly- secretariat complex.
• Each residential sector could accommodate about 50% of population and was
intended to house the half of the population.
• Plots on the periphery of each sector are meant for private and supporting
population that constitutes the remaining 50%.
• The city was planned for a population of 1,50,000 but can accommodate
double that population with increase in the floor space ratio from 1 to 2 in
the areas reserved for private development.
• The river being the border on the east, and the industrial area to the North,
the most logical future physical expansion of the city was envisaged towards
the north-west.
PLANNING
• To establish and maintain a separate identity for the new city, the surrounding area of about 39 villages was brought under a Periphery Control Act that permitted new
development of farm houses only.
• The area later constituted a separate administrative district of Gandhinagar.
• To retain the identity of the city as a new town and the capital, the planners provided for its growth away from the city of Ahmedabad to the south.
• Hence, as a rational extension of the grid, the planners had envisaged 30 additional residential sectors to the northwest that could accommodate a population of 450,000.
• Thus, the growth potential of the city by densification and area expansion to the northwest is for a population of 750,000.
PLANNING

• Due to a constant military confrontation with Pakistan, whose borders

are close from the city, a large military presence was required here.
• The land acquired on the eastern bank, adjacent to National Highway
no.8, was therefore allotted to the Border Security force and military
cantonment.
• Considering the mostly south-west to north-east wind direction, the
land to the north of the city was allotted for the then biggest thermal
power station and the adjacent areas were zoned for industrial use.
• This area was distanced from the township by a 2000ft wide green strip
of thick vegetation