Ahmedabad civic body lists 206 junction fixes, 115 new roads in High Court affidavit

4 min readVadodaraJun 18, 2026 10:08 PM IST

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). (File Photo)

Nearly eight years after the Gujarat High Court pulled up authorities over traffic chaos, encroachments and pedestrian safety in Ahmedabad, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has filed an affidavit in the court detailing the measures taken for traffic management across the city and urged the court to close contempt proceedings against it.

In a detailed affidavit filed before the Gujarat HC on Wednesday, Municipal Commissioner Banchha Nidhi Pani submitted that the civic body has substantially complied with the court’s directions and cannot be accused of wilful or deliberate disobedience. The affidavit was in response to contempt proceedings arising from a public interest litigation filed in 2017 by city resident Mustak Hussain Mehndi Hussain Kadri, through Advocate Amit Panchal. The petitioner had alleged that directions issued by the High Court in 2018 regarding traffic regulation, road safety, parking management, encroachments and pedestrian infrastructure were not being implemented, prompting the contempt plea in 2019.

Pani, who took charge as Municipal Commissioner in February 2025 and was later added as a party to the proceedings, informed the court that the AMC had reviewed the earlier orders as well as a January 2026 direction requiring authorities to place a comprehensive traffic management policy on record.

Pursuant to that order, the AMC and the Ahmedabad Traffic Police jointly prepared the “Comprehensive Policy, 2026,” with engineering improvements, enforcement, public awareness, education and periodic evaluation of traffic measures implemented to ensure traffic management.

Detailing the interventions undertaken by the civic body over the past year, in his affidavit, Pani submitted work has been completed at 206 of the 321 traffic junctions identified for improvement across the city. The affidavit states that out of the 100 major junctions selected for scientific redesign, work has been completed at 37 while implementation is underway at several others. The corporation has also carried out free-left-turn improvements at dozens of locations, installed thousands of road sign boards and road safety markers, and undertaken large-scale road marking works.

The affidavit also highlights the rollout of an Adaptive Traffic Control System (ATCS), under which hundreds of signalised intersections are proposed to be integrated through a centralised traffic management platform. More than 400 junctions have already been surveyed for the project, AMC said.

On the infrastructure front, the civic body told the court that 115 new roads were opened between April and mid-June this year, adding over 32 kilometres of carriageway to the city’s road network.

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Parking management has also featured prominently in AMC’s compliance report. The corporation stated that surveys were conducted along several “Zero Tolerance Roads” and notices issued to commercial establishments that failed to provide adequate parking arrangements. It has also proposed a digital mechanism allowing private property owners to share unused parking spaces with the public.

The affidavit further states that AMC is moving ahead with plans to procure nearly 2,000 electric buses as part of efforts to strengthen public transport. It is also working on an Integrated Transport Management System intended to bring AMTS, BRTS, Metro Rail and GSRTC services onto a common ticketing platform.

On the enforcement side, the AMC informed the court that joint teams comprising civic officials and traffic police personnel have been carrying out anti-encroachment and parking enforcement drives. More than 12,000 complaints relating to encroachments were processed during 2025, with the majority having been resolved, according to the affidavit.

The corporation also cited interventions at several chronic traffic bottlenecks and contended that the measures demonstrate continuous compliance with the High Court’s directions to address long-standing traffic and mobility concerns across Ahmedabad.

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Requesting the HC to close the contempt proceeding, the affidavit states, “The implementation process is active, continuous and ongoing. The mountain of record produced before this Hon’ble Court year-on-year, culminating into the present affidavit, would evidence the continuous effort being made by the AMC and other stakeholders to implement the directions issued by this Hon’ble Court… urban traffic management in a metropolitan city such as Ahmedabad is a dynamic and evolving process requiring continuous interventions and periodic corrective measures…”

The HC is expected to hear the matter in the coming weeks.

Aditi Raja is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, stationed in Vadodara, Gujarat, with over 20 years in the field. She has been reporting from the region of Central Gujarat and Narmada district for this newspaper since 2013, which establishes her as a highly Authoritative and Trustworthy source on regional politics, administration, and critical socio-economic and environmental issues.

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