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During the Diwali vacation in Ahmedabad, a six year old girl was raped in our neighbourhood, which is an urban village named Shilaj, engulfed within the city in the last decade due to the urban sprawl. The close-knit village community has been opened up and in a sense invaded by the outsiders living in the newly developed gated enclaves on the village’s former agricultural lands. The independent bungalows in the gated enclaves cost around Rs 6-8 crores and the apartments cost around Rs 2 crores. There is no link between the village and the new colonies that have come up. It does not remain a neighbourhood any more. Gift City development in Shilaj is still sparse and the village agriculture lands are lying fallow. Thus, traditional village periphery bubbling with activities has become dead. The girl had ventured out to the village’s boundary with her two elder brothers, who were tricked to go home and the girl was whisked away during the mid-day. The person belonged to the village he was caught as the girl came back soon and narrated her experience.

While the most heinous crime was committed on this child, another issue that has as well as bothered me is about the urban form that emerges on account of urban sprawl motivated by excessive land speculation. The developer have begun to decide the urban form since last decade and a half, since when the urban land ceiling act has been lifted and developer have ability to accumulate vast tracts of lands. New colonies, which in essence are the gated colonies, are set up way outside the city boundary. In case of Shilaj Gift City Ahmedabad it was 8 kms outside the former boundary of the city. This forced the planning authority to lay roads and other infrastructure to connect the new gated colonies with the main city infrastructure. Once that happens, the land prices further increase riparian theory of land rent tells us that as the city’s area expands by physical sprawl, the price of centrality increases and this has a ripple effect throughout the city, increasing the land prices everywhere. The developer who are able to accumulate lands, by purchasing from the farmers at low rates, are able to then reap bonanza profit. Shilaj is on such development in Ahmedabad that has caused sprawl of Ahmedabad City on the western periphery. Once this locality developed I cannot call it a neighbourhood, as there are no neighbourly feelings and everyone is an alien in their own gated enclave the city limits were extended to include the locality within it.

The taxes paid by the residents of the gated enclaves are far less than the capital investment by the Municipal Corporation to extend network services to the residents. Urban sprawl is an outcome of excessive speculative greed of the land developers and the developer the residents of the gated enclaves have personal vehicles, mostly four wheelers, and often one household has more than one. True suburbia, a la the American suburbia experience the gated enclaves are low density developments. No resident from among them walks, cycles or takes public transport. We do not therefore find walk able footpaths along the roads connecting the gated enclaves to the main city. Public transport is not viable due to low density and hence is not efficient. The roads are resurfaced periodically so that motor vehicle users are not inconvenienced and do not complaint.