Bapunagar

Bapunagar is an area of Ahmedabad city, Gujarat, India. It is located in the eastern part of the city, falls under rakhial ward (something like county). It can be divided into two basic regions – old Bapunagar and new Bapunagar. It derives the name from the word “Bapu” named after Gandhi- The Father of nation as he was popularly also called Bapu.

History

Bapunagar is believed to be established in early 1960’s. It is in close vicinity of the old walled city of Ahmedabad. It primarily came into existence as a residential area for the poor mill workers, when Ahmedabad was flourishing with textile mills and was called “Manchester of India”. Many of these mills were located in close neighborhood of bapunagar. By the end of late 80’s, most of these mills were closed and now there might be hardly 4-5 working mills, which are converted into more or less small time production units. Due to sudden closure of mills, the poor mill workers had no other option but to start working in the household industries like making incense sticks, making candles and many other such hard earning small scale works. This household industry is the mother of present day detergent giant named “Nirma”. The owner of “Nirma”, Shri Karsanbhai Patel, himself started making household detergents at his home, did door to door selling of these detergents and today it is a popular household name all over India.

Industry/Business

In early 90’s the fall in textile mills, gave rise to the new business of cutting diamonds. At present bapunagar, ranks 2nd only after Surat as a major diamond cutting center. Most of the family members and next generation of the poor mill workers got diverted to this diamond cutting business. Due to the flourishing diamond industry, there was a huge demand of labor and hence lot of people from “Saurashtra” migrated in search of work and established themselves in bapunagar. Apparently there was a huge demand in housing sector, seeing this as a great opportunity lot of local entrepreneurs converted themselves into builders and contractors. Huge residential colonies and buildings were built. Currently lot of big construction individuals and companies in Gujarat have their roots in Bapunagar.

Landmark

"Maleksaban" (also called Lal bahadur shastri stadium), was the first sports stadium in Ahmedabad. It was hardly used, due to no specific interest towards its development and lack of funding from administration it never got developed and converted into sports complex like “Sardar Patel Stadium”. Earlier the ground was used for military parade and display of weapons. For years it has given great pleasure, smiles to all age cricket fans who use this to play cricket. Occasionally you can also see lot of new drivers learning to ride bikes, cars in this huge ground.
"Samjuba", a hospital center – was first of its kind to be established in the area.
Vijay chowk, is a Square that can be called a virtual boundary separating the so called old and new bapunagar. This square is a popular place for political gatherings and speeches, during the time of elections.
Bapunagar has one mall with BigBazaar and a multiplex. It also has several upscale shops. It is very close to kalupur railway station.
Bapunagar is very popular for its sale of seasonal yields like sugarcane, kesar mangoes, red chilies (traditional type, used widely for pickles).

Diversity

Bapunagar has diverse population and people of different caste, religion stay here. However it is also called as “"Mini-Saurashtra"” as majority of its population has its roots into Amreli, bhavnagar, junagadh and other districs of saurashtra region of Gujarat. This area is considered communally sensitive and has witnessed some of the worst post independence communal violence, primarily struggle between Hindu majority and Muslim minority. 1969 riots were the worst riots ever – with about 1100 lives lost. Than godhra riots in 2001 were other major riot that took about 300 lives.

Since 1989, this is a strong Hindu hold and the so called “hindu political party” –BJP. It has retained the corporation as well as legislative seat. It also is a place where firebrand VHP leader Dr. Pravin Togadia started his professional as well as political carrier.

Bapunagar also has a sizeable population of out of state immigrants like bhaiyajis, marwaris and huge number of marathis.

Many of the local retailers, franchises, restaurants and other businesses have observed the significant development that has taken place in the last decade. The general consensus being that to restore the branch in Bapunagar would be a benefit for all.

Bapunagar also now has some huge multispecialty hospital units like “"Sardar Hospital"” and “"Kakadia Hospital"” and some decent sized health clubs/gymnasiums.

Just like rest of Ahmedabad, Bapunagar too has significant levels of atmospheric pollution, some very bad traffic problem and is in urgent need of attention from authorities.

This is also one of the fastest-developing areas of the city. Bapunagar is surrounded by areas like Odhav, Saraspur, Naroda, Gomtipur, and Asarwa.