Team TOI

Ahmedabad: Amdavadis are the current bulls on the Sensex. No wonder they are backing this blue-chip city to the hilt. Call it ‘Sensex and the City’, if you wish to add some spice. But there are many more reasons to be bullish about Ahmedabad Next than just the green ticks on an NSE ticker.

An opinion poll conducted by The Times of India has given a huge thumbs-up to Aapnu Amdavad, the city of the future which undoubtedly has the potential to give Mumbai a run for its money. Amdavadis, cutting across gender and age, are not only feeling nice and comfortable in the city, but they are also overwhelmingly optimistic about a bright future ahead.

The TOI-TNS poll talked to 200 Amdavadis, with 120 men and 80 women responding. There were 60 respondents in the age group of 18 to 25 years while 140 were in the age group of 26 to 40 years.

If you had asked these questions at the turn of the millennium, the results would probably have been different, given the setbacks suffered during the earthquake in 2001 and communal riots in 2002. But, hey, it is time to move on. And now is the time when things are really looking up for a city which has taken turbulence in its stride throughout its glorious history of grit and enterprise.

Mumbai can hardly offer aspirational value to Ahmedabad today. The survey shows most people would rather stay in Ahmedabad because it offers better quality of life. It will also create more jobs than Mumbai and so, being here makes economic sense. Yes, realty rates are a bit stretched here, as those surveyed say. But then with things like SEZs happening all around the city, and almost a dozen ports coming up along the state’s coastline, the engines of growth are clearly identified, apart from the giant leap that the city is now taking into the IT sector.

The Amdavadi is not depending on other forces to fuel growth. There is tremendous selfbelief here, that the ‘aapno’ entrepreneur himself would be tearing away at turbo speed to make things happen.
We do need to address issues of mass transport, where the average Amdavadi seems sceptical about the BRTS. If the Sabarmati riverfront has to be the centrepiece of a sparkling new city, which is bristling with energy, then we would like to have more public spaces rather than commercial development along the stretches on both banks.

There is some strange optimism about the level of education, given the miniscule percentage of city boys and girls who get into premium institutions like the IIM. We do need to catch up with our English in this age of globalisation, as most people acknowledge.

And guess what? The ‘Sabarmati ka Sant’ still rules the heart of Amdavadis. Mahatma Gandhi, above anyone else, is chosen best mascot for Ahmedabad Next. Let’s be at Peace.