Gandhidham is a city and a municipality in the Kachchh District of Gujarat state of India. The town was created in the early 1950s for the resettlement of the refugees from Sindh of Pakistan in the aftermath of the partition of India. In recent history Gandhidham is a fast developing city in Gujarat state




History

Soon after the separation of Pakistan from India in 1947, a large group of refugees from Sindh of Pakistan came to India. Sindhi Resettlement Corporation was formed ( fondly called SRC)with Acharaya Kriplani as chairman and Bhai Pratap Dialdas as managing director. Main objective of the corporation was to assist in the rehousing of displaced persons by the construction of new town on a site few miles inland from location selected by Government of India for new port of Kandla on the Gulf of Kachchh. The first plan was prepared by a team of planners headed by Dr. O. H. Koenigsberger, director of the division of housing in Government of India. Subsequently plan was revised by Adams Howard and Greeley company in 1952. The foundation stone of town was laid with blessings of Mahatama Gandhi and hence town was named Gandhidham, Tried hard to build city like state capital Gandhinagar.

It is said that it was barren land with snakes and scorpions so numerous, Bhai Pratap had to offer compensation 25 paise to kill a scorpion and 50 paise to kill a snake in this area[1]. The first plan envisaged 400,000 as ultimate population of town, expecting half of it would reach in mid seventies. Revised plan envisaged three stages of town development with mid stage lasting longer with population around 150000. The single largest challenge before town planners was to overcome problem of poverty of its residents. Since major part of its population was made up of either refugees or laborers of port, free trade zone and railway, even a cost of single toilet exceeded their earnings of year. Hence in beginning, houses were made with one room and a kitchen, without water driven sewage. Residents have to draw water from nearby community tap, which were provided one for every ten to twelve family. Every row of houses had a narrow alley in back so sweepers can access it to remove sewage manually. Nevertheless town and modern and beautiful look because of its wide streets and rectangular neighborhoods. Areas allocated for recreational facilities were half of the US standard of such facilities in 1950. Another challenge in neighborhood design was to channel traffic on main streets so traffic should not flow through neighborhood streets, which otherwise would have been the case with wide streets. From very begin of the town planning, it was expected that Town will benefit from port and free trade zone related activities and only in later stage will have other manufacturing activities around it. The system of open drainage has been long replaced by closed(piped)system. City is divided in to many sectors and wards.