Expanding Ellisbridge may destroy monuments

The good news first: A year from now Amdavadis will have a more comfortable drive across the historic Ellisbridge, thanks to the Rs. 12-crore expansion plan taken up by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

And now the bad news: The expansion project is likely to take its toll of ancient architecture connecting Ahmedabad to the 15^th and the 19^th century and 'buried' under the massive steel structure.

Take a walk under the structure and a withered old woman perched on the temple plinth stares at strangers with suspicion. Behind the expression is an apprehension-- "Have they come to destroy my beautiful dwelling?" A young mother cajoling her new-born nearby is hardly aware that the stone wall she leans on, is over 100 years old. Neither is she aware that the arched doorway that leads to her home is the historic Ganesh Dwar the only entrance to Ahmedabad-- going by word-of-mouth testimonies.

Time had frozen for these settlers on the fringes of history till massive machines rolled into the riverbed land work began on the bridge expansion two years back.

The project promises the swelling ahmedabad traffic a bump-free cross-over to be constructed on both sides of the architectural wonder which was officially re-christened the Swami Vivekananda Bridge, the expansion plan will cost the city more than just the Rs. 12 crore.

It will cost Ahmedabad the circular Manekbaug structure which now houses the Victoria Garden police chowky, the ancient retaining wall below the bridge on the eastern end, including the plaque dating back to 1889, now concealed under a coat of blue oil paint.

While the guilt roam scot-free, neither the AMC nor archeological experts have bothered to preserve this document from the colonial era adjacent to the chowky. Now officials state that efforts are on to shift the stone plaque too. It is perhaps the only written word stating that the bridge was named in 1869 by Sir Barrow Herbert Ellis a former 'commissioner'.

Also gone will be the Ganesh Dwar bang under the bridge, which is learnt to have been so named by Ahmedabad's ruler Sultan Ahmed Shah to mark the entrance to the walled city. The idea nearly devastated a few of the city's self-made archaeologists and historians who got together with the authorities to find alternatives to save this heritage. Thus, says project manager of UP State Bridge Corporation, M K Prasad, and "We have decided to shift the gateway to the new entrance of the tunnel which will be retained."

The retention apart, the passage which connects the riverbed to the bridge through a crumbling climb, will then be a continuous passage connected by a concrete box-like structure to be inserted under the bridge. But nearly two-thirds of the massive circular Manekburg structure of 1894 will go. No remorse about that for the inhabitants since an alternate site is already coming up near Lal Darwaja.

The policemen in the chowky which was earlier a 'chungi-naka' (octroi checkpost) are not amused. They are used to people visiting the place to take pictures of the river of enjoy the breeze under the neem tree which is another wonder having sprung right out of the concrete!