In Vadodara, vibrancy is fine but dream is lacking



By Japan K Pathak, Vadodara, 18 February 2013

For last few years, we regularly receive news about something new, something futuristic taking place in the urban development sector in Ahmedabad and Surat, and sometimes in Rajkot too, and we publish too. And when we publish, our readers from Vadodara would always complain: “What about our city?”

So if we write something about BRTS project taking place in Ahmedabad, Surat or Rajkot, the readers from Vadodara would ask, “What about Vadodara?”

If it’s about new swanky airport terminal in Ahmedabad, a reader from Vadodara would ask, “What about Vadodara airport, where development is pending for last many years?”

And it just goes on like this, almost every time.

My today’s visit to Vadodara Chamber of Commerce and Industry(VCCI)’s exhibition ‘Vibrant Vadodara 2013’ at Navlakhi ground, kicked off with some expectations to find at least something on city’s future vision. But I failed to find anything in this regard!

I asked a local businessman friend, “why Vadodara Municipal Corporation(VMC) has not showcased anything about the city here in this exhibition? Why they haven’t demonstrated their vision, some ambitious projects if there are, big panels, graphics, models of ongoing and future developmental works? ”

He replied, “actually, the VMC has nothing big to show!”

What I gathered after meeting various local people, was that the city is not dreaming! I mean dreaming is necessary for a city. As I mentioned earlier, this exhibition’s name was ‘Vibrant Vadodara’, and vibrancy is fine, but what about the dreams? What about the future vision?

Next is what …… Next is what should continue to buzz like a continuous ringtone in city managers’ minds, and city should dream for its future continuously and should work to achieve it! But in Vadodara this is missing!

Why Vadodara is not matching the speed of Surat or Amdavad when it comes to remarkable and big-sized urban development projects?

I found a development plan report of VMC, which mentions following paras:

The last two decades i.e. 1981 – 2000 have been a period of general decline for the city. The 1991 – 2000 has seen a decrease in decadal population growth rate from 40.42% in 1981 – 91 to 26.63%. Implying the city is hardly attracting migration to itself. This decrease is primarily due to reduced employment opportunities available in Vadodara. It would also be pertinent to note that both Vadodara and Surat had a population of about 4.67 Lakhs and 4.93 Lakhs in 1971 respectively, in 2001 the population of Surat was 24.33 lakhs and Vadodara has grown only to 13.06 lakhs.

Vadodara is sandwiched between two major growth magnets i.e. Ahmedabad and Surat. Though part of the golden corridor, Vadodara is at a disadvantage in attracting investments, since the only area that it covers is Anand, Panchmahal and Dahod. Also, Vadodara’s hinterland on its east gets constrained due to tribal areas and hilly terrain on the border districts of Madhya Pradesh.

Now this was just a small portion of VMC’s development plan draft. If you read the entire draft, it thrice mentions that city’s geographical location is its weakness.

‘We are sandwiched between Surat and Ahmedabad which limits our development,’ I hear such remark whenever I meet prominent people of Vadodara, and discuss their city with them.

Actually by leveraging the strength of M.S.University, Vadodara could follow Pune model. Mumbai is nearby, but Pune has continued to be in a good position with its unique cultural flavor, and with the presence of IT, Automobile and Education sectors. If in late 1990s we had a good leadership, Vadodara could be a major IT hub in western India, I have no doubt about it! Ahmedabad had no capacity to become Bangalore, but Vadodara had.

Years back, I wrote it in a Gujarati newspaper that setting up the electronics GIDC(Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation) estate in Gandhinagar was a mistake committed by the state government( the decisions of 1980s/90s), it could be rather set up near Vadodara.

The city of Vadodara presently enjoys proximity to big industries. There are some really big industries around Vadodara that continue to make the city a happening place. But just that is not enough.

Last week state Revenue minister held a meeting with city administrators of Vadodara to discuss the big projects. Some of them are Vishwamitri riverside developments and BRTS among others. The Vishwamitri river project includes relocation of around 5,000 slums, construction of check dams, renovation of present bridges and crocodile park. Then I saw a night-market project. The VMC is going to start a night market soon in the city. It will have a good number of food stalls!

Coming back to the VCCI exhibition, it was really a good local effort.

I visited a job fair section and met VCCI committee member Mahesh Satlani. He informed that 6600 interviews took place during the exhibition in job fair section, and 1000 of them were shortlisted for job.

One of the eye-catching things for me was a visible and vocal spillover effect of state leadership at city and district level, and further down. So if the state organizes Vibrant Gujarat exhibition, the city organizes Vibrant Vadodara exhibition, if the state sets up Asia’s biggest Charanka solar park, a small-time solar product vendor in his stall showcases a big poster of Charanka solar park to sell his smaller solar products like solar lanterns and street lights, if the state markets its future prospects in connection with the proposed DMIC project, an industrial plot seller too mentions a detailed map of DMIC in his brochure and poster to show importance of his location!

So vibrancy was showcased and witnessed too, but dream? The city has to dream.