Gandhidham

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Gandhidham
City
Gandhidham Junction station board
Nickname(s):  Sardar Ganj
Gandhidham Location in Gujarat, India
Coordinates: 23°05′N 70°08′E / 23.08°N 70.13°E / 23.08; 70.13Coordinates: 23°05′N 70°08′E / 23.08°N 70.13°E / 23.08; 70.13
Country	India
State	Gujarat
District	Kutch
Founded by	Bhai Pratap
Government
• Type	Gandhidham Municipal Corporation
Area
• Total	63.49 km2 (24.51 sq mi)
Elevation	27 m (89 ft)
Population  (2011)
• Total	248,705
• Rank	181
• Density	3,900/km2 (10,000/sq mi)
Languages = Official
Time zone	UTC+5:30
PIN	370201, 370203, 370205, 370230, 370240
Telephone code	02836
Vehicle registration	GJ-12
Sex ratio	0.879 ♂/♀
Distance from Bhuj	60 kilometres (37 mi)
Distance from Gandhinagar	365 kilometres (227 mi)
Website	https://www.gandhidhamnagarpalika.org/

Gandhidham is the developed, largest and most populous city in Kutch District, Gujarat, India. It was created in the early 1950s for the resettlement of Sindhi Hindu refugees from Sindh (now in Pakistan) in the aftermath of the partition of India. It was named after Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. An economic capital of Kutch and a growing area for families and retirees, it is Gujarat's 8th^[1][2] most populous city. It is a popular destination for conventions, business and meetings.

History[]

Soon after the Partition of India in 1947, a large group of Sindhi Hindus refugees from Sindh of Pakistan migrated to India. The Maharaja of Kutch His Highness Maharao Shri Vijayrajji Khengarji Jadeja, donated 15,000 acres (61 km²) of land to Bhai Pratap, who founded the Sindhu Resettlement Corporation Ltd (SRC) to rehabilitate Sindhi Hindus that migrated from Sindh in Pakistan.^[3]

The Sindhu Resettlement Corporation Ltd was formed with Acharaya Kriplani as chairman and Bhai Pratap Dialdas as managing director. The main objective of the corporation was to assist in the rehousing of displaced persons by the construction of a new township. The original plan was prepared by a team of planners headed by Dr. O. H. Koenigsberger, director of the division of housing in the Government of India. Later, the plan was revised by Adams Howard and Greeley Company in 1952. The foundation stone of the town was laid with the blessings of Gandhi in 1947. Hence, the town was named Gandhidham. To clean the desert where it was built, Bhai Pratap gave incentive of 25 paise to kill scorpions and 50 paise to kill snakes.^[4] The original plan envisaged 400,000 as the ultimate population of the town, expecting half of it to be reached in the mid-seventies. A revised plan envisaged three stages of town development with the mid stage lasting longer with a population around 150,000.

Geography and climate[]

Gandhidham is located at latitude 23.08° N longitude 70.13° E. The main city is constructed in accordance with the principles of Vastu-Shastra (Hindu belief of construction), i.e., the main city has its face directed to the East.

Gandhidham has a hot arid climate (Köppen BWh), just short of a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) despite receiving around 375 millimetres or 15 inches of rainfall per year, due to the very high potential evapotranspiration. Almost all rainfall occurs during the monsoon season from June to September: outside this period Gandhidham averages just 15 millimetres or 0.59 inches of rain in eight months. During the “cool” season from October to March temperatures range from very warm to hot during the afternoon and are cool to pleasant in the mornings, whilst during the hot season afternoon temperatures become sweltering and extremely unpleasant, especially when with the approach of the monsoon humidity increases. Gandhidham's amount of rainfall, although not especially low on paper, is amongst the most erratic anywhere in the world with a coefficient of variation of around sixty per cent^[5] – among the few comparably variable climates in the world being the Line Islands of Kiribati, the Pilbara coast of Western Australia, the sertão of Northeastern Brazil, and the Cape Verde islands.^[6]

Governance[]

The city is represented by a constituency in the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha. It forms part of the Kachchh Lok Sabha constituency

2001 earthquake calamity[]

The Gujarat earthquake of 2001 majorly affected the city of Gandhidham along with many nearby towns like Bhuj, Anjar, Bhachau and more. The shock, which measured 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killed 13,805–20,023, left roughly 166,800 injured, and many were left homeless including Gandhidham. The death toll in the Kutch region was 12,300. Bhuj, which was situated only 50 km away from the Gandhidham, was devastated. Considerable damage also occurred in City Gandhdidham and Bhachau and Anjar with hundreds of villages flattened in Taluka of Anjar, Bhuj and Bhachau.

Land of Adipur & Gandhidham[]

Gandhidham (initially known as Sardarganj) was the dream of Pratap Dialdas. Bhai Pratap Dialdas requested great Leaders of India for procurement of land in Kachchh region. They requested Maharao Vijayraj Ji of Kachchh for grant of land for re-settlement of Sindhi community people migrated from Sindh. Maharao, without any delay, granted 15000 acres of land for the purpose. Bhai Pratap said this is too big land and cannot be developed by SRC Ltd, therefore, he desired to keep with him only 2,600 acres and rest of the land was given to KPT and GDA for management. Today Adipur and Gandhidham townships are the townships of pride in the District of Kachchh only with the grace of Rajput Kshatriya ancestors – Provided by Ram Amarnani.

Distance between twin-townships of Adipur & Gandhidham is 6 km till not developed fully and 0 km if full land constructed. The airport road dividing wards 5 & 7 divides these townships, whereas Municipality is one, known as Gandhidham Municipality. These towns are divided in two parts wherein land is recognized as Wards & Sectors. Townships have six wards each 1to6 in Adipur and 7to12 in Gandhidham. These wards consist of commercial, industrial and residential plots of land. The land which is owned and managed by SRC (The Sindhu Resettlement Corporation Ltd) is known as 'Wards' and The land which is owned and managed by KPT (Kandla Port Trust) is known as 'Sectors'. There are 13 such sectors in Gandhidham. Apart from this, there is vast land managed by GDA (Gandhidham Development Authority) which is known as "NU". For construction of any permanent structure in these townships, permission of GDA is must.

Kandla airport There is a small airport in the outskirt of Gandhidham near Galpadar town, known as 'Kandla Airport' which is not a regular airport. Daily one jet flight to-n-fro service is available from Kandla to Mumbai. SpiceJet has announced one more flight for Mumbai from 11 July 2017 onward. Truejet has stated flight for Ahmedabad.

Education[]

Schools in the area include

CBSE SCHOOLS

• Delhi Public High School (D.P.S)
• Podar International School
• Savvy International School
• The Fusion School
• St. Thomas School
• Atmiya Vidyapeeth School
• D.A.V. Public School
• Welspun Vidya Mandir(W. V. M)
• Kendriya Vidyalaya at Railway colony

STATE BOARD ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOLS

• Mount Carmel High School
• Modern School
• St. Marys School at Kandla
• Cambridge School, Gandhidham

GUJARATI MEDIUM SCHOOLS

• RP Patel High School
• Shri Saraswati Vidhyalaya
• M.P. Patel Kanya Vidyalaya

PRE-PRIMARY SCHOOLS

• Podar Jumbo Kids
• Einstein School
• Kangaroo Kids School
• Makoons Pre School
• Wonderland Kids School

are

• Dr. C. G. High School
• Maitri Kanya Mahavidyala at Adipur
• at Gandhidham are the first and oldest schools situated in the heart of the city.

For professional courses like Chartered Accountancy and Cost & Management Accountancy the national professional accounting body of India like Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Institute of Cost Accountants of India have opened an examination centre at Adipur.

College and graduation[]

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. DNV International Educational College is situated in Bharatnagar; the courses provided are BCA and BBA

Transport[]

Gandhidham is connected by road and rail to the rest of India. Transport Nagar, on the outskirts of Gandhidham is the hub of all major transport activity. There are trains to, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Varanasi, Kanpur, Agra, Lucknow, Faizabad, Patna, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Alwar, Abu Road, Jaipur, Mumbai, Vadodara, Surat, Yesvantpur, Kalyan, Bhiwandi, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kollam, Kota, Delhi, Durg, Guwahati, Puri, Chengannur, Jalgaon, Bhusaval, Raipur, Vizag, Nagercoil, Vijayawada, Warangal, Rajahmundry and several other cities. Many private companies operate bus services to major cities in Gujarat like Ahmedabad and Rajkot. India's largest port, Kandla is around 11 km from the city. It also has connectivity to Kandla Airport near village Galpadar. From August 2016 Airconnect has started its daily services for Ahmedabad and Surat (Kandla-Ahmedabad-Surat at 17:40 & Surat-Ahmedabad-Kandla at 07:45). Spicejet has announced one flight from Mumbai to Kandla Airport (Gandhidham) Departing at 13:05 and arriving at 14:30; and return to Mumbai with departure at 15:10, arriving at 16:50 from 11 July 2017 onward.

Trains[]

Train No.	Train name	Runs from source	Destination	Departure days	Arrival days
18501/18502	Visakhapatnam–Gandhidham Express	Gandhidham	Visakhapatnam	Friday	Sunday
22973/22974	Gandhidham–Puri Weekly Express	Gandhidham	Puri	Wednesday	Friday
16335/16336		Gandhidham	Nagercoil	Friday	Thursday
16505/16506	Gandhidham–Bangalore City Express	Gandhidham	Bangalore	Tuesday	Monday
11091/11092	Ahimsa Express	Bhuj	Pune	Wednesday	Tuesday
15667/15668	Kamakhya–Gandhidham Express	Gandhidham	Kamakhya	Saturday	Saturday
14312/14311 via Ahmedabad & 14322/14321 via Bhildi	Ala Hazrat Express (via Ahmedabad) Ala Hazrat Express (via Bhildi)	Bhuj	Bareilly	Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday For 14312. Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday For 14322.	Friday, Saturday, Monday For 14311. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday For 14321.
22829/22830	Shalimar–Bhuj Weekly Superfast Express	Bhuj	Shalimar	Tuesday	Monday
22904/22903	Bandra Terminus–Bhuj AC Superfast Express	Bhuj	Bandra	Monday, Thursday, Saturday	Thursday, Saturday, Monday
12937/12938	Garbha Express	Gandhidham	Howrah	Saturday	Wednesday
12960/12959	Dadar–Bhuj Superfast Express	Bhuj	Dadar	Monday, Thursday	Wednesday, Saturday
14802/14801	Gandhidham–Jodhpur Express	Gandhidham	Jodhpur	Monday, Wednesday, Saturday	Monday, Wednesday, Saturday
22955/22956	Kutch Express	Bhuj	Bandra, Mumbai	Daily	Daily
12993/12994	Gandhidham–Puri Weekly Superfast Express	Gandhidham	Puri	Monday	Wednesday
19116/19115	Sayajinagari Express	Bhuj	Bandra	Daily	Daily

See also[]

• Kandla
• Adipur
• Galpadar

References[]

Further reading[]

• Kripalani, J. B. 1951. Gandhidham. Bombay: [Mangharam N. Thadani for the Sindhu Resettlement Corp.]
• Adams, Howard & Greely. 1952. Report on a revised plan for the town and region of Gandhidham, Anjar Taluka, Kutch India, prepared for the Government of India Ministry of Transport, and the United States Department of State. [Boston: Adams, Howard & Greely].

External links[]

• Kandla Special Economic Zone
• Kandla Port Trust
• Arya Samaj, Gandhidham
• Tolani Foundation
• KutchForever.com – The First Internet Gateway of Kutch
• Sindhu Resettlement Corporation Limited (SRC Limited), Adipur
• Lions Club of Gandhidham Official website of Lions club of Gandhidham, India
• www.sindhology.org