Gujrat International Financial Tech City( GIFT)
GANDHINAGAR, INDIA | Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (Multiple Towers) - SkyscraperPage Forum
Gujarat's GIFT zips into SEZ street
GANDHINAGAR: Ahmedabad’s aggressive claim as a global financial hub, streets ahead of Mumbai and rivalled only by the best in the world like
Manhattan, Shanghai, London and Singapore, got a sizzling punch with the Centre finally clearing a special economic zone (SEZ) status for the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT).
The clearance paves the way for developing 250 acres out of the total 500-acre GIFT project as an SEZ with a possible International Finance Service Centre status that would make it one of its kind project in the country.
The project will of course add a sizzling global touch to Ahmedabad’s skyline with its glitzy skyscrapers, including a 400-metre tall diamond faceted steel and glass Diamond Tower. After all, it is being designed by the Shanghai-based East China Architectural Design & Research Institute Co Ltd that has designed Shanghai’s Pearl Tower.
More importantly, GIFT will alter the contours of India’s financial skyline as well by setting towering global benchmarks in investments, exports and job creation. The multi-services SEZ, which is slated to bring in investments of over Rs 15,000 crore, is targeting exports worth $1 billion in the first three years beginning 2010, when the first phase of the project will become operational.
Exports are slated to zoom to $2 billion per annum by the fifth year and to $3 billion by 2020. These figures could shoot through the roof if the project bags an IFSC status. On the job front, GIFT is targeting nearly 1 million jobs by 2020, including a direct employment of 4 lakh.
The project that promises to catapult Ahmedabad into the global big league is being developed by the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Ltd, a joint venture between the state-run Gujarat Urban Development Company (GUDC) and Infrastructure Lease and Financial Services (IL&FS).
And apart from the IFSC, the SEZ portion of GIFT will house an international techno park, STPI technology units, international market zone, stock exchanges and services units, international education zone, integrated townships, entertainment zone, hotels and convention centre and shopping malls.
And so excited has the project got global and domestic finance biggies as well as realtors that even before it has got off the ground, 13 memoranda of understanding have already been inked with nearly 40 million sq ft space being booked.