AHMEDABAD: Owing to a spike in Covid cases, the AMC on Thursday will close down all parks and gardens, the Kankaria lakefront, the zoo, the Balvatika, amusement parks, gymnasiums, sports clubs, gaming zones and buses in the city. These facilities will remain closed indefinitely.
The number of Covid cases in the city rose to 246 on Tuesday, representing the doubling of cases over the past fortnight. The decision to pull buses off the road will affect the student community at large as the examination was going on. A Gujarat University official said stopping buses at such short notice will force many students to miss examinations as they come from far and would leave early for the first session of their examination.
Jignesh Patel, the director of the parks and gardens department, said that combined daily footfalls since the easing of the lockdown, on average, had been 2 lakh at the city’s gardens and the zoo.
Law Garden and Parimal Garden were crowded on most days. Officials in the AMC said that the two gardens lie close to a college and the Happy Street food zone, which attract a large number of visitors. The two gardens were crowded till the closing time each day. The Kankaria lakefront recorded footfalls of about 10,000 on weekends and about 5,000 on weekdays.
Meanwhile, the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited has announced that Usmanpura garden, riverfront park near Subhash Bridge, Ellisbridge flower park, Dafnala Children’s Park, and the Diversity Park near Ambedkar Bridge will remain closed till further orders. Cycling on the lower promenade of the riverfront has been banned for now.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation late on Wednesday has announced that from Thursday, AMTS and BRTs buses will be off the road till further orders. Officials said that during a meeting, it was pointed out that buses were running with more than 70% occupancy and during the peak hours passenger traffic was 85% to 90% while for the BRTS this was an average of 75%.