Renuka Siddharthan recalls the time when her family of three came to live in South Bopal, now considered a posh area in the western part of the city, about 14 years ago.
The area was mostly green, with hardly any construction or even roads. Since vehicular movement was sparse, there was no pollution either,” she says. Cut to 2025. Traffic situation is nothing less than a nightmare, thanks to the rise in construction, vehicular traffic and encroachments.
Located off SP Ring Road, South Bopal – or SoBo – sees vehicular movement to and from Bopal, Ghuma, Shela and Godhavi. At the heart of SoBo is the SoBo Centre, a commercial complex that houses several offices and shops and witnesses heavy traffic congestion during peak hours.
“When we came to live in Sun City, SoBo Centre was under construction. There was nothing beyond it. In fact, all this construction and traffic density has shot up in the past five to six years,” says Siddharthan.
Woes galore, no solution in sight
Residents report daily traffic chaos at the SoBo Centre crossroads. Cars parked illegally on the road occupy half the space available for moving vehicles.
Hawkers and vendors too add to the traffic bottleneck. In fact, the area in the radius of 500 metres around SoBo Centre is the worst-affected because of illegal parking and encroachments. Right opposite the SoBO Centre is an open plot that hosts seasonal fairs round the year besides eatery stalls. These fairs and food stalls attract significant footfall during evenings.
“During peak hours, we often get stuck in traffic chaos caused by carts and hawkers opposite the civic centre in SoBo,” said Kartik Mehta, a Bopal resident. He questioned whether authorities are deliberately ignoring these violations, and added, “Why should AMC wait for complaints when the illegal encroachment is clearly visible?”
Since 2020, SoBo and Ghuma areas, which were under the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA), have come under jurisdiction of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). However, that does not seem to have eased residents’ woes.
Harit Kothari, a SoBo resident, suggested, “As AMC works towards making Ahmedabad a smart city, they must have surveyed SoBo for solutions like a flap lock-based smart parking system. Why aren’t they implementing such measures to resolve this daily nuisance?”
Official response
Mirant Parikh, Deputy Municipal Commissioner of South West Zone, acknowledges the issue: “We conduct regular anti-encroachment drives and will intensify efforts to stop illegal parking and encroachment.”
He added that while commercial complexes must provide visitor parking per CGDCR rules, AMC lacks space for multi-level parking. “We’re working on implementing a paid parking system to manage traffic better,” he explained.