Ahmedabad: Journey of Dhal ni Pol revival hits potholed path

AHMEDABAD: Every time road repairs take place in the famed Dhal ni Pol in the core World Heritage zone of Astodia, the civic body adds a new asphalt layer. Today a 1.5-foot-thick road riddled with potholes greets visitors here. “Roads in Dhal ni Pol are in a terrible condition, pockmarked with potholes. The reason is every time the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) resurfaces these roads, they do not remove the old asphalt layer. They just add another layer, which gets washed away during the monsoon and we are saddled with potholed roads again,” said Bipin Suthar, a resident of Dhal ni Pol. The pol is the first heritage zone in the city where a trust and local residents have collaborated with the civic body to develop it into a model heritage zone— an experiment which if successful will be applied to other pols in the area from 2023 onwards. Dhal ni Pol include havelis including French, Baghban, Sewa and Vasant havelis, apart from a number of Jain temples and chabutaras (bird feeders) which attract tourists. “The last time the civic body removed the old asphalt layer was 20 years ago,” says Suthar Every monsoon the houses here get filled with run-off water, as the road level has risen,” says Amit Kothari, an advocate and resident of the pol. Residents said that since 2017, Dhal Ni Pol Seva Samiti, an association of residents, has been running from pillar to post to get the problem resolved. Only a small portion of the pol road, which was part of the Mahila Housing Sewa Trust revitalisation plan, has been developed while the AMC’s commitment to improving civic utilities in the pol is yet to be fulfilled.