M. S. Banga Dedicates HLL-Reconstructed Village In Gujrat

Mr. M.S. Banga, HLL Chairman, dedicated the village to the residents. Mr. M.K. Sharma, HLL Vice Chairman, and Mr. Gurdeep Singh, Director - Human Resources, Technology & Corporate Affairs, who jointly headed HLL's relief and reconstruction initiative in Gujarat, and representatives of HLL's partner NGO, Vivekananda Research and Training Institute (VRTI) also attended the ceremony.

Scholarship scheme for girls

Mr. Banga announced that HLL is proposing a scholarship scheme to facilitate college education for girls from Yashodadham. He urged the residents of Yashodadham to focus on three aspects -- cleanliness, greening the surroundings and education for children.

Yashodadham, spread over 25 acres, comprises 289 homes. HLL has also provided a school building, an exclusive playground for children and a multi-purpose community centre, including an anganwadi (creche), health centre, community room and panchayat office. Space has been left all along the village for parks and public squares, where villagers subsequently will plant trees. The 'L'-shaped village also has a separate area for shops, and a separate arrangement for cattle to drink water. The drainage is completely underground, which will carry used domestic water to a common kitchen garden. Yashodadham is connected to the highway, about half a km away, with a tarred road, which divides into two arterial rain-proof roads inside the village. The houses have been built, in small enclaves, on both sides of these two arterial roads.

Each house is of 400 sq. ft built-up area, in a 1600 sq ft plot. As desired by the villagers, the design and foundation of houses and the plot size is such that they have the scope to build extra rooms both vertically and horizontally in the future. The village panchayat allotted the houses to individual families through complete unanimity. The residents settled in their new homes within one week of the griha pravesh puja on November 7, 2002.

The main house comprises two rooms, two verandahs in the front and at the rear, and a kitchen. Each family also has an individual lavatory and bathroom with underground septic tanks, detached from the main house and at the corner of each plot, as desired by the villagers. The kitchen and toilet have running water. HLL has constructed both an underground reservoir and an overhead tank for water, with supply coming from the Chopadwa-Kandla pipeline. Each house has electricity with individual meters.

Building earthquake & cyclone-resistant structures

All the structures in Yashodadham are earthquake and cyclone-resistant. The buildings have been constructed with concrete blocks. The grade of concrete used is M23 and M24, though the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) prescribed minimum standard is M20. The corners have four 10-mm bars, though the GSDMA minimum standard is one 12-mm bar. The RCC door and window frames are tied with horizontal reinforcement bands, and additional steel rods. Each structure is held together horizontally and vertically. Mangalore tiles on the roof are pasted over an RCC roof with cement. Such features make the construction earthquake and cyclone-resistant.

HLL, which had launched immediate relief after the quake in areas adjacent to its Kandla Exports factory, subsequently decided to reconstruct a village which was completely wrecked. HLL decided to help a completely wrecked village, because such settlements had the greatest need for help. The company inspected 40 such villages, around its Kandla factory, and chose Nani Chirai, which was completely wrecked.

Partnering with NGO VRTI

HLL also decided to choose an NGO as a partner for ease of interaction through an organisation known to local communities for its credibility and reputation, and also because the NGO would be able to support the community in social and economic matters in the longer term. HLL reviewed 13 NGOs and chose VRTI, one of Gujarat's most reputed, which has been working in the Kutch region since 1980. VRTI, like HLL, had also decided to work on villages requiring complete reconstruction. It had in the past worked at Nani Chirai.

Nani Chirai originally was a village of 1022 houses. Of them, 65% at the core of the village had fallen, while the rest in the periphery had been damaged. Residents of the damaged houses had decided to stay on after repairing their houses. The families in the core of the village had willingly among themselves formed two clusters because raising funds to reconstruct a village of a similar scale was proving difficult.

One of these clusters of 289 families decided to accept help from HLL and VRTI. The group had already bought a 17-acre plot. HLL subsequently bought an additional and contiguous 8-acre plot to make Yashodadham a properly designed settlement, with each family getting a plot-size, which gave them the scope to expand their houses in the future.

HLL engaged the nationally-famous Ahmedabad-based Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) for village layout and house plans. A combined team of HLL, VRTI and CEPT held separate interactive sessions with the men and women of the village, with layout mockups and cutaway sections. The suggestions have been incorporated in the final plan.

VRTI had the responsibility of purchase of materials and actual construction, while HLL provided technical assistance and general supervision, besides monetary contribution. The HLL team for the reconstruction comprised Mr. R.K. Agarwal, HLL's General Manager - Property Development, and Mr. S.N. Verma, Project Manager on site.

Contrinuting  Funds

HLL has donated Rs.3.5 crores for the reconstruction and acquiring the additional 8-acre plot. The State Government has provided Rs.1 crore. The State Government's funds were directly given to the villagers who, in turn, handed it over to VRTI for use in the project. Besides, villagers themselves worked (shram dan) on the reconstruction.

HLL's relief and reconstruction activity in Gujarat is part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. CSR in HLL covers three distinct areas: sustainable development in its own operations through conservation of resources, company's relationship with its business partners through the value chain, and philanthropic contributions.