Riverfront - How Ahmedabad Lost Sabarmati (Full Film)

We have made this film to stand in solidarity with the marginalised voices who have been dispossessed and disappointed by the destruction caused due to the Sabarmati Riverfront project. We are alarmed that urban rivers in other cities of India await a similar fate with hundreds of riverfronts being planned across the country. We sincerely hope that this film will be useful for communities in other cities to learn from the experiences of Ahmedabad and help them prepare to make planners and politicians accountable to people and rivers.


We are grateful to citizens, citizen associations and movement groups in Ahemdabad who hosted and supported us in this collective endeavour.


Please send your valuable feedback and reviews to us at [email protected].


About the film

More than a hundred riverfront projects have already been planned in different Indian cities situated on rivers. These projects claim to transform riverbanks into recreational spaces for the public and to ‘beautify' the urban rivers. The grim reality is, however, that these projects often become a vehicle to displace the communities living on the riverbanks and to destroy the social ecology of the river. Rivers in India are dying but riverfronts do not help revitalise them. Riverfronts merely mask the degradation of rivers and urban environments while capturing the valuable urban space for elite usage.

Sabarmati river, a seasonal river that flows through Ahmedabad and where Gandhi had built his Ashram, is now famous for the riverfront that has been built on it. This film revisits the Sabarmati Riverfront Project where it all started.

Featuring
Beena Jadhav
Bharat Singh Jhala
Jay Narayan Vyas
Mudita Vidrohi
Navdeep Mathur
Nafeezbhai Allahwala
Neeta Mahadev
Sagar Rabari


People's Resource Centre Team



Filmed and Edited by Avikal
Research Support: Archana Singh, Nishant and Rajendra Ravi

For more details: www.prcindia.in