Ahmedabad: For nearly two weeks, a large sinkhole has crippled Shela following the city’s first major rainfall, highlighting the area’s chronic waterlogging issues. Repairs by civic authorities are expected to take another 45 days. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has already closed the access road to Club O7.

This situation could have been prevented if the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) had developed the gardens it had planned for Shela. In 2016, AUDA earmarked 2.96 lakh square meters of land across three town planning (TP) schemes for 26 gardens. These gardens could have served as natural stormwater sinks.

However, eight years later, not a single garden has been created. Instead, AUDA has focused on large projects like a Rs 40 crore auditorium, neglecting basic amenities like public parks. Shela’s rapid development has been driven by building use approvals from AUDA without ensuring basic infrastructure, worsening waterlogging issues.

“The natural drainage channels leading to nearby lakes have been blocked, and new TP roads have been built over the old channels, disrupting stormwater flow,” said a senior AUDA official, speaking anonymously. Shela, with 13 lakes—the highest number in western Ahmedabad—could manage excess stormwater if these lakes were interlinked. However, no funds have been allocated for their development, despite the land around the lakes being reserved for garden development.

In the past two years, AUDA approved two public-private partnership proposals to develop garden-cum-lake projects, one from a company and another from an institution.