AHMADABAD CITY
I09
and blocks, each with its separate gate branching off from either side
of the chief thoroughfare.
The Ahmadabad municipality was established in 1857. It includes
the two square miles of territory within the city walls and the railway
suburbs outside, as well as the hamlet of Saraspur. Before the constitu-
tion of the municipality, a fund raised in 1830 and styled the 'town
wall fund' was available for municipal purposes. In 1903-4 the
total income of the municipality (including loans) was nearly io-
lakhs. The chief sources were octroi (Rs. 1,60,000), house and land
tax (Rs. 42,000), water rate (Rs. 88,000), and conservancy (Rs. 5,o000).
The total expenditure was Rs. II,02,000, including administration
(Rs. 54,000), public safety (Rs. 18,000), water-supply (Rs. 29,000), and
conservancy (Rs. i,o6,ooo). In I890 an attempt was made to drain
one of the more thickly-populated quarters on the gravitation system.
After a comprehensive scheme had been prepared by a European
expert, the operations were gradually extended to about half the urban
area, at a cost of 14 lakhs. The annual maintenance charges for the
28 miles of drains completed by i906 exceeds Rs. 14,000, and are met
by a drainage tax. A sewage farm of 353 acres is worked at a profit in
connexion with the scheme. Prior to I89I the water-supply of Ahmad-
abad depended upon wells, tanks, and a pump-service from the
Sabarmati river, which, constructed in 1849 and improved in 1865, was
situated in a somewhat insanitary portion of the city. The present
works, which were opened in 1891 and were handed over to the
municipality in the following year, cost nearly 8 lakhs, of which 42 lakhs
was contributed by Government. The head-works are situated at
Dudheshwar on the left bank of the Sabarmati, about 2,000 yards north-
west of the city, and comprise four supply-wells, a pump-well, and a
high-level reservoir, the water being pumped from the wells by steam-
power. The total length of the service is 82 miles, and the annual
expenditure, which is met by a water tax, amounts to about Rs. 53,000.
The cantonment is situated north of the city at a distance of 31 miles,
and close by, in the Shahi Bagh, is the residence of the Commissioner.
The cantonment usually contains a battery of artillery, a few com-
panies of British infantry, and a native regiment, and has an income
of Rs. 14,000.
Ahmadabad was formerly celebrated for its manufactures in cloth of
gold and silver, fine silk and cotton fabrics, articles of gold, silver, steel,
enamel, mother-of-pearl, lacquered ware, and fine woodwork. It is now
the centre of a rising cotton-mill industry. The Dutch founded a
factory in I618, which was removed in I744. The building is now used
by the Bombay Bank. No trace remains of the English factory founded
in 1614 by Aldworth. It was closed in 1780 when the city was captured
by General Goddard. The prosperity of Ahmadabad, says a native
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