Megaproject: Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) -- General Development News and Discussions

[TheOptimist]

Modi's pet project GIFT City continues to face delay, phase-1 may miss 2014 deadline

As against a target of two towers to be launched in 2012, the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Co. Ltd. (GIFT City) will only be launching its first tower during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2013.
On one hand, while GIFT City has been selected as one of the top 100 strategic global infrastructure projects to be showcased at the forthcoming Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum being held in New York during February-March, 2013, the third time re-elected Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's pet project may miss its latest target of completing first phase by 2014.
"Completing initial phase takes time though people have started coming now. We got delayed initially in allotting contracts for the first two towers. Now that the first tower will come up in January 2013 and the second tower in next 3-4 months, we should at least touch the advance stage of completion in 2014 even if we don't complete the first phase," said RK Jha, director of GIFT City. Last year, the chairman of GIFT Company Limited, Sudhir Mankad had set a target of completing the first phase in 2014.
Apart from the two towers, each spanning 700,000 sq ft of area, the first phase includes an additional eight towers whose design is yet to be finalised. However, recently the special purpose vehicle (SPV) allotted contracts for first and second tower to L&T and Dubai-based AMC. Comprising 10 towers, the first phase will see a built up area of 10 million sq ft. It needs to be mentioned here that the project is already running two years behind schedule. According to a senior official from one of the IL&FS subsidiaries, factors like global meltdown and focus on developing soft infrastructure resulted in the delay. "It is an entire financial city that is being developed and hence you can't expect it to come in 3-4 years. Initially, many international companies were roped in however post global meltdown many of these companies are not even in existence. This led to a delay of couple of years. However, things are getting back on track now," the official stated on the condition of anonymity.
IL&FS official informed, GIFT City in the meantime has been developing soft infrastructure like internal roads, service trenches, water supply, electricity, school, hospital, training institutes and convention centres. "Even if the towers may not have come up on time, putting these soft bricks will eventually make people come to GIFT City," the official added. The Diamond Tower was supposed to come up couple of years ago but on Monday its fate hangs in balance due to non-approval from the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The first two towers of GIFT City will see a construction cost of Rs 700 crore and are likely to house major nationalised banks such Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Syndicate Bank, said Jha. "The first two towers will mainly see nationalised banks as the initial incumbents. The State Bank of India (SBI), however, has sought for a separate tower, work on which will begin later in 2013," Jha added.
SBI has sought a 200,000 sq ft sized tower at GIFT City. Once signed, GIFT City would also be offering around 100 residential units to SBI for its personnel.

[C-DAC]

That means total 10 towers to come up in Phase 1 out of which two towers are already topped out. So if they start construction work on remaining 8 tower simultaneously from now onwards, I don't think there will be any hurdles to complete the phase-1 by end of 2014.

[TheOptimist]

NO actually when R K Jha himself saying that phase-1 might not get completed in it's entirety by 2014 then you can't be optimistic

[whitefox011]

no diamond tower ? OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

[UMANGSHUKLA]

Originally Posted by whitefox011

no diamond tower ? OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Diamond tower was never the part of phase 1

[whitefox011]

i think the articles say it is cancelled

[UMANGSHUKLA]

Originally Posted by whitefox011

i think the articles say it is cancelled

No where it mentions that !!!

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

Yeah! Diamond Tower is supposed to be built in the end (phase 3, around 2020).

Anyway, went to GIFT and Mahatma Mandir today...lots of updates on GIFT and unfortunately no pics of MM coz photography strictly prohibited there

Here are some pics of the 2 towers:

From the approach road which has been resurfaced and work is going on to install pavements on both sides

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

Artistic divider...

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

Rear view of QC 2




From a distance of 2 kms, although inside GIFT boundary.

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

QC 1 Entrance




Cladding going on for crown of QC 1

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

Now for some infra updates

Road leading to the towers




Dont know what this is...seems to be R.C.C. retaining walls (for what??). Could be for the automated waste disposal system, though it seems to big...

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

Concreting going on....




Same thing at another place, along the same line

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

Pipes...




More pipes with official quarters in the background

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

...




The circular road which encompasses the huge garden in it with the towers at the center in the background

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

Sign posts of proposed buildings

[MrMagic]

Originally Posted by TheOptimist

NO actually when R K Jha himself saying that phase-1 might not get completed in it's entirety by 2014 then you can't be optimistic

Given the fact that they are serious enough about this project to actually put up two buildings (a huge achievement as far as the Indian trend goes with megaprojects), I believe they are just playing it safe. Eight empty buildings may be a dangerous political liability, especially for a figure like Modi. So by putting up two buildings only, the government can send the message to investors that they are serious about the project, while making sure that they are not jumping ahead of themselves and making a big mistake.

So the fate of this project will be in Vibrant Gujarat.

In the meantime, great pictures rushabh!

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

[gandhi.rushabh1992]

Since its not clear- "Proposed Residential building"