The earthquake in Gujarat: Where disaster recovery really means something

One leg of the tour encompassed Gujarat, the western state at the centre of last Friday's massive earthquake. Here, Sally Watson says why the region can and will recover.

As the full extent of the devastation in western India becomes clear, it's hard to believe that the ruined landscape of Gujarat is the same forward-thinking state that I visited in November.

Just a few short weeks ago businessmen and politicians from Gujarat's commercial capital Ahmedabad gathered to greet Britain's ecommerce minister Patricia Hewitt and demonstrate the state's high-tech advances and entrepreneurial flair.

Gujarat is no rural backwater. As India's second most industrialised state it has a long history of manufacturing and petrochemical production. More recently its well-developed communications have attracted investment from the likes of AT&T, General Electric and Siemens.

Like every state in India it has massive problems with poverty and unemployment. But Gujarat was in the process of building its first 'InfoCity', a state-of-the-art campus with its own optical fibre network, ISDN and telephone exchanges designed to house a new breed of technology companies and take the state into the 21st century.

Now, with water and electricity supplies, roads and communications networks in ruins, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry has estimated the cost of reconstructing Gujarat will be 150 billion rupees ($3.2bn).

Even if the InfoCity is ever completed, it will take time and effort to rebuild the state's image to outside investors. Gujarat's proud boast that it would be a high-tech centre to rival Bangalore now seems a long way off.

No one could have predicted the earthquake and its devastating effects. There is nothing that can be done now except help the survivors rebuild their lives.

In the list of priorities, the provision of food and shelter come a long way before reconstructing fibre networks or reconnecting modems. But Gujarat was not a struggling third world state - it was a thriving industrialised centre pushing hard to build the latest in first world technology.

And it will be again, eventually.

Donations can be made through the International Red Cross website at http://www.ifrc.org

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