The walk was the talk in 1930s too

AHMEDABAD: The move to begin a walk on a stretch of the old wall along Sabarmati is set to revive the glory of one of the crumbling heritage structures of Ahmedabad. But, the plan germinated almost seven decades ago when a British urban conservationist mooted a similar walk for the city.
Calling it the sentinel walk', Patrick Geddes propounded the walk in the 1930s, on the lines of the London Roman Wall walk, St Helen's fort walk, the Hadrian wall walk in Northampton and even the walk on the Great Wall of China.
The recent plan envisages revival of old city walls almost 3.9 km of which is left of the seven km that guarded the city from intruders and marauders and saved the city's interest since 1486.
The intention of Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL) to integrate portions of the 1.7-km stretch along the riverfront and even organising a sentinel walk' on it is one of the last-ditch efforts to save the city's glorious past.
Historically, it becomes clear that with each passing phase of Ahmedabad city, the importance of the wall has only grown stronger. For instance, one of the first conservation efforts in modern time would date back to 1834 when the then collector of the city H Boredaille imposed a local tax on ghee now octroi for reconstruction and maintenance of the wall at a cost of 25,000 pounds. The move was to reduce crime, thefts and illegal trade in the city with a population of 1.3 lakh people.
"Almost a 100 years later in 1930, one of the world's leading British urban conservationist Patrick Geddes had traveled to the city and suggested a sentinel walkway' for people to stroll on the wall with special steps climbing up to an area meant for recreation for children. He had calculated that two persons could actually walk abreast without being toppled over the wall and even suggested a simple iron hand rail for people who would like to stand by and look at the river flow past," says heritage conservationist Debashish Nayak.