The Parsis of Ahmedabad will have to wait some more for the relocation of the Seth Navroji and Jehangirji Pestonji Vakil Daremeher. "We will keep on trying. The price of Rs 60 crores plus [the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)] is asking is not right,” Brig Jahangir Anklesaria (retd), chairman of the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat (APP) told Parsiana. He spoke to us two days after the Ahmedabad Mirror (AM) dated January 8, 2022 reported that the Panchayat’s proposal to build a fire temple on the Sabarmati riverfront hit a roadblock "as the state government has refused to give the plot at a subsidized rate and demanded Rs 67 crore as per its market price.” The 135-year-old Vakil fire temple is located in Khamasa within the walled city where access "is difficult, especially on Sundays when families wish to visit…Hawkers take up most of the road…Most Parsis have moved to the other side of the river” where the intended plot is located, stated Anklesaria.
Seth Navroji and Jehangirji Pestonji Vakil Daremeher
"The collector has put a base price of Rs 2.67 lakh per sq m which is the highest for any government plot till now in Ahmedabad,” reported the daily. Stating that the "standing committee of the AMC (had) cleared the proposal without any objection,” the AM report said that the APP then approached the collector’s office for further action. Reportedly, the proposal for the plot was reviewed by the land assessment committee of the collector which set a base price of Rs 2.67 lakh per sq m. The total price was calculated at Rs 67 crore. Anklesaria told AM: "It is beyond our means to pay Rs 67 crore. We want to set up an agiary and a charitable hospital and the government should give us the plot at a subsidized rate. We are hopeful that our representation will have a positive outcome.”
The newspaper reported that the AMC has reclaimed more than 500 acres of land on the Sabarmati riverfront. "Of this, 49 plots of the 14 % reclaimed land are to be sold. Five years ago, the state government had decided the base price of two plots but it found no takers due to the high price. AMC then appointed an agency to fix the price. The agency issued an expression of interest for the sale of 49 plots and sought proposals from different companies.
The previous chief minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani was "supportive in providing land on the newly developed riverfront,” Udvada High Priest and then member of the National Commission for Minorities Dastur Khurshed Dastoor had told those assembled at the Iranshah Udvada Utsav (see "The blessings of Iranshah,” Parsiana, January 7-20, 2020). Rupani resigned from his position in September 2021. F. J.