| Gandhidham | |||||
| — city — | |||||
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| Coordinates | |||||
| Country | India | ||||
| State | Gujarat | ||||
| District(s) | Kachchh | ||||
| President | Meenaben A Bhanusali | ||||
| Municipality | Gandhidham Municipality | ||||
| Population | 166,388 (2001[update]) | ||||
| Sex ratio | 0.894 ♂/♀ | ||||
| Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) | ||||
| Area |
• 27 metres (89 ft) |
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Distance(s)
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Gandhidham (Gujarati: ગાંધીધામ, Sindhi: گانڌيِ ڌام) 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.
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Soon after the separation of Pakistan from India in 1947, a large group of refugees from Sindh of Pakistan came to India. Maharaja of Kutch His Highness Maharao Shri Vijayrajji Khengarji Jadeja on advice of Gandhiji, gave 15,000 acres (61 km2) of land to Bhai Pratab, who founded Sindhu Resettlement Corporation to rehabilitate Sindhi Hindus uprooted from their motherland.[1] 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.
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. The town has big open grounds to facilitate Garba and Social gatherings. 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.The economy is majorly driven by Kandla Port.Post 2001 Earthquake,the city has rapidly progressed and there many huge and small scale manufacturing plants around the city.The city has a considerable presence of Sindhi community. However it has largely cosmopolitan population due to migration of people from various parts for employment.
Gandhidham is located at latitude 23.08° N longitude 70.13° E. The main city is constructed in accordance to the principles of Vastu-shastra(Indian belief of construction)i.e. the main city is having its face directed to East.Summers are hot and dry and frequently the temperature touches 45°C and in winters it falls to 3°C accompanied by cold waves.
Gandhidham has several schools providing high school education. Gandhidham's first English Medium school is Modern School in Gandhidham, Oslo and Adipur. Schools in the area include "Bachpan Pre-School", P.N. Ambersey High School,Small Wonder School, Delhi Public School, Ananda Marga Primary school in Sector-7 and Ananda Marga High School in DC-2, Rambaug road (English Medium),the other schools are Mount Carmel High School,Modern School,Kakubhai Parikh School(K.P.S), Saint Xaviers at Adipur, Kendriya Vidyalaya at IFFCO colony, Kendriya Vidyalaya at Railway colony, Aum Vidiya Mandir at IFFCO colony, Sadhu Vaswani International School and Amarchand Singhvi School and "Hindi Medium" Schools are Dr. C.G. High School and Adarsh Mahavidhyalaya situated in the heart of the city. The "Kakubhai Parikh School" offers CBSE curriculum.Government High School-sector-5, sathwara coloney-in present principal is Ankesh Solanki
Colleges for graduation and higher studies are Tolani college of Science & Arts, Tolani commerce college, Pharmacy college and Diploma in Engineering, Management Institute situated nearby in Adipur
Gandhidham is a well structured city, on one hand the road goes Kandla and on the other hand the road goes to the National Highways. There are many multi-storey buildings in the city. There are many original Branded shops such as Reebok, Adidas, etc. There are many Technology shops such as Mailen Computers, Yashvi Infotech & Pooja Infotech. A new Mall has been there namely E-mall where every technological thing is available. There are many Shopping Complexes in the city such as Golden Arcade, Mahatma Gandhi Market, etc. At the middle of the city there is a huge market where everything is available for any purpose. There are many Vehicles showroom, Service stations, etc and a complete care of our vehicle. There are many historical temples. There are well constructed black roads with dividers at some of them. There is also RTO Police to control the traffic.
Gandhidham is connected by road and rail with rest of India. on the outskirts of Gandhidham there is also an area called Transport Nagar, where transport of everything is carried out. There are trains to Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bangalore, Jaipur, Kota, Delhi, Durg and several other cities. Many private companies operate bus services to major cities in Gujarat like Ahmedabad, Rajkot. The domestic airport closest to Gandhidham is in Bhuj. India's largest port, Kandla is around 11 km from the city. Gandhidham also has its own airport called Kandla Airport or Galphadar Airport which is located north of Gandhidham near Village Galpadar(six km from city). There is a daily flight operated by Kingfisher airlines for travel to and from Mumbai.