AHMEDABAD: The old city still reigns supreme when it comes to the density of commercial properties despite a slew of new projects in the posh western parts.
Spread over 481 sq km, Ahmedabad city has an overall property density of 5,087 units per sq km. However, the Central zone, the smallest in terms of area, houses four times more the number of properties than the most sought-after addresses in Northwest (3,377) and Southwest (3,085) zones.
When it comes to commercial properties, the Central zone — comprising Khadia, Dariapur, Shahpur, Jamalpur, Shahibaug and Asarwa — has the highest density of commercial properties at 7,031 per sq mt.
The Northwest zone comprising Ghatlodia, Thaltej, Gota, Bodakdev and Chandkheda is spread over 96.83 sq km with a density of 742 commercial units per sq km which is the second lowest among the seven zones of the city, while the Southwest Zone comprising Jodhpur, Vejalpur, Sarkhej and Maktampura, spread over 70.92 sq km, has the lowest density of commercial properties with 696 units per sq km.
A senior AMC official said that the eastern part of the city, which includes East, South, North and Central zones, is spread over 233.43 sq km and has 1,690 commercial units and 4,570 residential units per sq km.
The western part of the city comprising West, Northwest and Southwest zones covers 247.45 sq km and has 897 commercial properties and 3,084 residential properties per sq km.
Officials in the town planning and property tax departments said the walled city is the old city and hence commercial establishments are concentrated there and because of these, the residential properties were also in high number.
As the city began expanding on the other side of the river, areas like Paldi, Navranpura and Vadaj in the North Zone came to have a high density of residences at 5,540 units per sq km which is the second highest.
“The new areas of the North and Southwest zones are the newly merged areas which extend till Bopal Ghuma and Nirma Institute. These are upcoming areas and the most sought-after when it comes to housing schemes. Also, they are witnessing both vertical and horizontal growth. In the next five years they will see higher property densities than the other parts of the city,” said a senior AMC officer.
Officials said the East and North zones of the city have higher property densities because of the industries. Several high-end housing as well as commercial projects are also coming up here.
Credai President Deepak Patel said property density in the New West zone will increase in the days to come as earlier, the areas along the stretch connecting SG Road to SP Ring Road were green zones and hence several farmhouses and party plots have come up there.
Besides, earlier there were restrictions here on the types of construction, but these have been lifted and development has begun here as well.
“In the walled city, the residents have moved out and the houses are now giving way to commercial properties,” he said.
