Ahmedabad: Amdavadis are all too familiar with the daily grind of traffic. SG Road crawls at 7 PM, the Prahladnagar bottleneck clogs Monday afternoons, and a car juts halfway onto the footpath outside a tea stall on Ashram Road. For years, traffic management in Ahmedabad has been a reactive game of deploying cones, police personnel, and addressing complaints. Now, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is taking a proactive approach by making developers bear the cost of congestion they generate, even before it happens.
Core Elements of the New Policy
The Comprehensive Traffic and Road Safety Policy introduces three key concepts. First, no large commercial development will proceed without a mandatory traffic impact assessment (TIA). This legal, engineering-based estimate calculates how many extra vehicles a project will bring onto Ahmedabad's already burdened roads and what the developer must do to offset that load. However, a senior civic official noted that the precise applicability area and thresholds defining a 'large establishment' are yet to be finalized by AMC.
Second, a new building rating system will evaluate structures based on environmental, economic, and community impact, nudging the construction sector toward greater accountability. Third, and most visible to citizens, a shared parking circular will compel malls, offices, and institutions to open private parking to the public. As AMC has stated clearly, parking on public roads is a privilege, not a right.
Penalties and Enforcement
Penalties for violations are far from symbolic. A second breach doubles the administrative charge, and a third triples it. Pending dues can stall trade licence renewals. Dumping building debris across more than 25 square metres of road invites a Rs 50,000 penalty. Placing branded chairs on a footpath attracts a Rs 1,000 fine. AMC has also set up a dedicated Parking Cell to audit basements and podiums, as across the city, spaces meant for vehicles have quietly turned into storage units, offices, or retail outlets.
Stakeholder Reactions
Varun Patel, a developer, suggested that if a developer provides free visitor parking spaces, they should be granted an equivalent amount of free FSI in return. For instance, in a building with 150 offices, offering free FSI for at least 50% of the visitor parking requirement would directly encourage developers to allocate ample parking spaces for visitors. Kruti Chawda, a teacher, welcomed the move, noting that roads become very chaotic during construction. She said it is a great move by the government to have the builder appoint someone for managing traffic in those areas, as the traffic police already have many other places to take care of.
