Hours after overnight 6 inch rains, 3000 people of this Vejalpur society in Ahmedabad remain stranded

By Rajiv Shah

Living in Vejalpur in Ahmedabad is a nightmate for middle classes during monsoon. The society where I live, Shrinandnagar Part 2, houses about 3000 people and has nearly 650 flats. It is society where an elected BJP corporator also lives.

I went up on the terrace on Sunday morning to see if waters had receded somewhat after the heavy 6 inch rains that continued yesterday till midnight. They did not. I took a few photographs. Even eight hours after I took the photographs, things remained unchanged.

I was told that the the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had put up a facility last year to clear any such drain immediately. It appears that the facility which is supposed to pump water in the Sarkhej Roza lake failed to work.

Our society, as also Shrinandnagar Parts 1 and 3, where more people live than what they do here, are low lying. Built by Bakeri, known to be a "clean" builder, all these are in low lying. Some say a huge water body was recovered to build these societies in late 1990s.

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