Guess who’s coming to dinner?

It almost seemed like the festivals of Dussehra and Diwali had arrived early in Ahmedabad. Decked up in colourful lights, fountains, jhoolas and flower arrangements, and packed with garba performances, the Sabarmati Riverfront Park this week played host to Chinese president Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan. Breaking protocol for a visiting head of State for the first time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the Chinese president in his home State of Gujarat, and on his birthday. Over a six-hour tour of the Gujarati capital, Jinping and Modi inked three MoUs for the State, visited the Sabarmati Ashram, where Jinping got a crash course in using the charkha, and took a stroll by the Sabarmati river before dining on a vegetarian meal of theplas and dhoklas under the canopy of a luxury Swiss tent.

Even on a regular day, the Sabarmati river is a sight for sore eyes. Flanked by a rapidly developing skyline, the riverbed regularly sees the Ahmedabadi citizenry whizzing by on motorboats or ambling on the clean walkway along the river. The age-old river, which originates from Dhebar lake in the Aravalli range and runs for 372km through Rajasthan and Gujarat to meet the Arabian Sea, has rediscovered itself on the 11km stretch in Ahmedabad city. Now, after the Chinese president’s visit, the Sabarmati Riverfront Park has emerged as an official diplomatic venue.

Jinping wore a Nehru jacket gifted to him by Modi, who also gifted the couple a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a Chinese translation of the life of Mahatma Gandhi and two charkha s. Modi and the Chinese delegation exchanged scraps of Gujarati — Kem chcho, majaa ma — and the State was declared a ‘sister province’ of Guangdong province in China. While the sights and sounds were made memorable for all the delegates, few know that the river was not the same barely a decade ago. Running perennially dry, the riverbed stank of garbage. Its banks encroached upon by slums and cattle, the river was also an outlet for human and animal excrement. “It’s the same place. A magical transformation has occurred of the riverbank. It is unique for Ahmedabad and Gujarat,” says Guruprasad Mohapatra, managing director of Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Ltd (SRFDCL), on the eve of the visit.

The Sabarmati riverfront, even before the Chinese president’s visit, had attracted international attention. In June this year, a delegation from Pakistan visited Ahmedabad to study the project, to replicate the same on the Ravi river in Lahore. The visit happened on the heels of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressing interest in the project during his visit to India for Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May.

Considered Modi’s pet project, the Sabarmati Riverfront Project was first conceived in the late 1990s. During his tenure as chief minister of the State, Modi fast-tracked it. The construction of concrete structures along the river began in 2005. The project, in its current state, cost the government about ₹1,103 crore, partially funded by the central government financial institution HUDCO. SRFDCL, created as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the municipal corporation, acts as developer for the land on a Build, Maintain, Operate and Transfer basis. The project has also received an award for excellence in urban design and concept from the government of India.

It is an example of creating public space in highly urbanised and populated parts of a city like Ahmedabad. The project channelised the Sabarmati river to a uniform width of 263 metres (at its widest the channel was 382m and at its narrowest, 330m) and designated 11.25km of riverfronts on both banks of the river. “On the riverfront, we have created an additional 200,000sq metres of urban space in the heart of the city. An average of 14 per cent is saleable, while 86 per cent is purely for public use,” says Mohapatra, who is also the municipal commissioner of the city. The saleable part ensures that the project is self-financed, generating resources for its upkeep.

This is not limited to the development and maintenance of the park and walkway along the river; an operational laundry campus has also opened next door. Spread over 9,200sq metres on the eastern bank, the campus provides laundering facilities to the washing community that traditionally used the river for its livelihood. Also in the pipeline are a flower garden, riverfront market, an upper-level promenade and a space to host events.

Even as the city of Ahmedabad rediscovers the river, the stage is set for the now sparkling Sabarmati to emerge as a riverfront capital, one where India can use soft diplomacy to deal with tough neighbours.