In October 2021, the Gujarat government embarked upon an ambitious project to redevelop Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram. It said it would expand the Ashram from five acres to about 55 acres by relocating the approximately 275 families who lived on the premises as well as other trusts. Nearly two years since, the relocation is still ongoing and concerns about redevelopment persist.
Families were given the option of being compensated with cash, flats, or land plots. Most of the residential properties belong to the descendants of those who settled in the Ashram in the early 1900s.
The State authorities recently allotted a plot of 3,400 sq m to rehabilitate 23 families who live on the premises of the Ashram. These families have formed a cooperative housing society to build their new houses on the plot given by the State government in the Vadaj area. Over a dozen families are yet to be rehabilitated.
