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Ahmedabad metro rail gets onto fast track!

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:32:22 +0000

Even as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation was preparing to launch the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), experts were quietly

materialising another mass rapid transit system for the city on the eve of Diwali.

Chief secretary D Rajgopalan was engaged in a hush-hush meeting with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief E Sreedharan in Gandhinagar for a metro rail connecting Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar and Thaltej and Kalupur along the east-west axis. Sreedharan also took a field visit of the proposed metro station sites with officers of state government, Indian Railways and DMRC.

A decision was also taken to launch a special purpose vehicle (SPV) — MetroLink Express Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA), which will start official operations by mid-November. MEGA, which will govern metro rail operations, was formed with an initial capital of Rs 10 crore and authorised capital of Rs 200 crore. After the field visit recently, Sreedharan suggested a revalidation study of the DMRC’s study of June 2005. A senior urban development official confirmed that there would be no change in the metro route even after a reassessment of 2005 DMRC report except for few stations.

The 100-km metro route will be totally elevated. The said route has been principally approved by the Union government, according to Gujarat Industrial Development Board (GIDB) sources. Till now the metro project mainly concentrated on the east-west corridor which is Thaltej to Kalupur and the north-south corridor involving APMC market to Gandhinagar.

“Some of the issues that are being addressed is phasing of metro project implementation and instituting feeder transport services. The third phase of BRTS will be bilateral to the metro route,” says a senior official in the urban development department.

Recently, a study for metro rail was assigned to Infrastructure Lease & Financing Services by GIDB, mainly for analysing traffic study. IL&FS would also undertake project advisory services for the Ahmedabad Metro project with the scope of services leading to selection of developer.

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Gujarat, AP in slugfest for Nano project

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:13:39 +0000

The battle for relocation of the Tata Nano plant is said to have narrowed down to Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Both YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Narendra Modi have offered or plan to offer 1,000 acres of land almost free of cost to Tata Motors — the Andhra government at Tada in Nellore district and the Gujarat government at Mundra in Kutch district.

Land acquisition — the factor responsible for driving Tatas out of West Bengal — will not haunt the company with ample government land available at both the places.

Gujarat had earlier offered the Tatas land in Savli near Vadodara, before the choice fell on Singur, but Mundra is considered a better location as it has a port from where Maruti Udyog plans to export its cars. Tatas have already been awarded the 4000MW ultra mega power project in Mundra.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa is also promising 1,000 acres to the Tatas, but is unable to show the land. Maharashtra is also in the race, but there is no land to offer in Pune where Tata Motors has a massive presence. Both Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat are also expected to give tax breaks for the Nano project.

Technically, Tamil Nadu is also in the race but the state has no land to offer in the proximity of their main port of Chennai where there is an auto cluster. Tada is barely 65 km from Chennai port and closer to the auto hub of Tamil Nadu.

The Modi government, which is not openly wooing the Tatas, is believed to have stepped up some back channel diplomacy which resulted in Tata Motors chief Ravi Kanth visiting Gandhinagar last week for parleys.

Modi is banking on Ratan Tata’s famous comment during the Vibrant Gujarat business summit in January 2007 when he said, “You are stupid if you are not in Gujarat.”

Source: TNN

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List of IT-ITeS SEZs in Gujarat

admin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:57:35 +0000

IT/ITeS SEZs arena hots up in Gujarat
4 new SEZs approved, three notified in last three months
Gujarat is moving ahead on the IT/ITeS special economic zones (SEZs) front. In last three months the state has seen three IT special zones being notified and four new proposals getting Centre’s nod. In addition, the state government is also considering at least two more applications for such economic zones. With the latest developments, the number of IT SEZs which have received formal approval or notification has touched 15 (see table).
The latest ones to get notified include Mindspace IT SEZ of Aqualine Properties Pvt Ltd (Raheja Group), DLF SEZ by DLF Commercial Developers and Shivganga SEZ by Ahmedabad-based City Gold Group.
Interestingly, all of these recently notified zones are in Gandhinagar. Moreover, these IT/ITeS SEZs are the ones for which MoUs were singed during the IT summit 2007. City Gold Group got an IT/ITeS SEZ notified in Ahmedabad in January this year. The company has joined hands with Pune-based Vascon Engineers for developing the SEZ. Managing director of City Gold, Sanjay Agrawal said that they are yet to select partner for the new project whose development cost is estimated at Rs450-500 crore. On the other hand, DLF has already started construction on the SEZ site. Chief executive, infrastructure, DLF Commercial Developers, YK Tyagi said, “First block will be completed by the end of this year. Then every six months a new block will be added.”
District-wise Ahmedabad has six IT/ITeS special regions, two notified, while rest have been formally approved. Gandhinagar houses six such SEZs but four of them have already been notified and are in the various stages of development. Vadodara though has got three formally approved; two of them got the permission in June and July this year.
According to director STPI, Gandhinagar, and development commissioner for the Gujarat IT SEZs, Ajay Kumar, after two years lot of space will become available to IT companies in the state. However, a lot would depend on Centre’s decision on tax exemptions provided under the STPI scheme, Sharma said. According to industry experts, around 50 square feet is required per employee. So, there are rare chances of surplus space, given the fact several major companies are driving into the state apart moderate growth of local companies.

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