AHMEDABAD: US president

’s ambitious project of building a wall between

and Mexico to bar infiltration will be ‘replicated’ by the authorities in Ahmedabad in a different shape. An L-sized wall is being constructed at the one end of Indira Bridge near city airport to ensure that the US President couldn’t see the poverty in slums of Sarania Vaas.

Labourers and their contractors, who were building the walls, said that the wall was being constructed on the government’s order as the slums may not look good. On further questioning, they thought it better to leave the spot!

Trump’s convoy will pass through the area on way to

. The wall is around 400-metre long and nearly eight-foot high.

“They began constructing the wall six days ago and we were told to remain behind it without making any noise. They also cut bamboo trees which were being nurtured by the forest department,” said

, a resident. Sarania, who earns his livelihood by sharpening knives on his cycle, said that there are around 1,500 people living in the slums.

The wall will not only cover the settlement but also two public toilets.

Vikram Sarania, another resident of Sarania Vaas, said that he had heard about some foreign dignitaries visiting the city but had no idea who the VVIPs are.

A police official, who was deployed at the wall construction site, said that earlier green curtains were put to hide the slums but this time a wall is being constructed to get a permanent solution.

Municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra denied that there was any intent to hide hutments behind the wall. “The stretch had a broken wall earlier and a tree lining behind it. We are just repairing the wall and its height will not be more than four feet. The hutments is clearly visible behind the new wall,” he said.