In late August, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will offer two-bedroom apartments for 10,283 families that need to be moved by the Sabarmati banks. The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday ordered the civic body to provide alternative homes in the form of apartments over 10,000 families.

All families who had settled on both sides of Sabarmati river before December 31, 2007, will receive the apartment buildings of four floors of the resettlement sites prepared by the CMA. About 15 sites for the relocation of people living on the banks were prepared as part of the Sabarmati river front development.

When the authorities started evacuating people from the banks in 2005, five in the petition, including the Sabarmati Nagarik Adhikari Manch activist Manish Jani, approached the Supreme Court, asking for alternative accommodation for these people. The High Court decided to suspend the authority to remove slum dwellers.

Any litigation moved forward, and June 24 this year, the High Court has requested a list of families living on the banks. The civic body said that 5,964 families have lived between Subhash Bridge and Vasna Barrage, as the 15th May 2002, which was the deadline above. However, the civic body adopted a resolution extending the deadline for the end of 2007. The applicant has submitted a list of 4319 families who were identified as having settled on the banks between 2002 and 2007.

On Tuesday, when a bank run by Judge SJ Mukhopadhaya asked the status of the relocation, the civic body said that in 5964 the previously identified families, 2166 families have been moved to the newly developed apartments. The Company has filed with the court that 4,800 more apartments would be built at the end of August, and all households were relocated by then. The Supreme Court also directed the residents to turn to their new homes within a month of completion. At the suggestion of the applicant’s lawyer Girish Patel, the high court ordered the authorities to allocate the houses to an individual, but to save the name of husband, wife and children together. The High Court also asked the CMA to ensure that, after the expulsion, the land is properly closed and no new people coming to settle there.

Court hearing takes place every month to check the status of the relocation of slum dwellers. If the switch is completed by the HC directions, this action may be completed in late October.