Sabarmati Riverfront update

There will be no concept of Floor Space Index (FSI) on Sabarmati Riverfront for now. As the present plan stands, the 20-per cent of land reserved for commercial development has perfect pre-decided geometrical plot shapes that would define the shape of building coming on them and each shape has been assigned the number of floors to go with it. This is the new skyline of the riverfront. Shapes varying from a circle, square, rhombus, quadrilateral and a variety of geometrical forms line the riverfront. These shapes form the building footprint on the riverfront. The saleable built-up area is calculated as a multiple of the area of the footprint and the number of floors assigned to each of the plot shape. The concept of margin space would be completely eliminated from the design as there would be no compound walls encircling the buildings — mainly to save on public space. The owner of a building would have slot for parking within the premises and there would be public parking spaces also. “Our emphasis is on public space. We have reserved 20 per cent of reclaimed land for sale. If costs are recovered by selling building space within 16 per cent of the land, then the rest of the four per cent would be used as public space,” said a senior official of Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL). Once finalised, the shapes and saleable built-up area would be thrown open for investors for discussions and suggestions. A separate development control regulation has been drafted by SRFDCL and is pending approval from the state urban development department. In Wednesday’s SRFDCL board meeting, the committee sanctioned two roads — a sixlane 30-m-wide road which is the ‘East River Drive’, while a four-lane 24-m-wide road, called the ‘West River Drive’. Civil utilities like drainage, electric lines, water and storm water drain utilities would be laid along side road. For now, the roads would extend from Dafnala to Sardar bridge on the east side and from Paldi to Usmanpura on the west side. Pedestrians would have direct access to the river on both banks, while on a small stretch on the eastern side the road will move away from the river because of the unusual topography. Nearly 42.8 hectares of parks and gardens have been envisaged along the river edge to host different recreational functions.