Ahmedabad Projects thread

[GJ10]

Govt Allots 26 Acres of land for Satyam SEZ

Satyam Computers Services Ltd, one of the software giants in the country, has been allotted over 26 acres of government land for setting up special economic zone (SEZ) dedicated to information technology (IT) sector.

The captive special zone would come up in the state's capital Gandhinagar near Infocity. "On July 16, the company's officials formally received possession of the land from the district collector," said a senior Gujarat government official on the condition of anonymity.

Satyam is the country's second IT consultancy firm to plan a SEZ in the state after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The TCS has already been approved over 10 acres of land in Gandhinagar.

Confirming the latest development, Capt H R Prasad, global head, corporate services, Satyam Computer Services Ltd, said Satyam was in the process of planning the campus in Gandhinagar. The company would now soon initiate the process of obtaining the formal nod from the board of approval and notification from the Centre."

According to government sources, the process of notification should not take very long, given the fact that the special economic region is to come up on a government land.

The company, listed on BSE as well as New York Stock Exchange, was expected to set up a software development centre in its captive SEZ, said a government official.

The Secunderabad-based company's officials, however, expressed inability to provide investment and employment figures for the project, saying that it was still in the early stages of planning.

This would be the 11th IT sector-specific SEZ in the state when approved. So far two IT-dedicated special zoneshave been notified: one is Ahmedabad and the other in Gandhinagar.

Interestingly, all the IT SEZs in the state, except one by Nipiam Infotech in Vadodara, are housed in the twin cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. While Ahmedabad has 4 of them in different stages of approval, Gandhinagar accounts for the rest.

[GJ10]

Some Ahmedabad Residential/Commercial Projects by Satyam Developers Ltd:

Satyam Corporate Square (2008-Onwards)

Walkthrough Video








Satyam Crystal (Completed)







Satyam Status (completed)



Satyata Heights (Completed)



Sentosa Greenland (2007-Onwards)





Satyam Mall (Completed)

[rajugentleman80]

can anyone update pics of new kakaria lakefront and ring road that was opened today.

[bhopalus]

everybody's favorite...the VHP. oh well, at least we know that kankaria lake front developments ARE occuring

VHP men go on rampage at AMC headquarters

Ahmedabad: It was high drama at Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) headquarters at Danapith on Saturday.

A mob of about 30 persons ransacked and vandalised AMC property in a ruckus that lasted for almost 20 minutes at the AMC office.

According to eyewitnesses, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists attacked the chambers of office-bearers of elected wings from ruling BJP at AMC. However , none of the office-bearers were present in their chambers when the mob attacked.

The goons brandishing wooden pieces ran amok in the AMC corridors , smashing glass windows, upturning flower pots and also damaging computer sets in the offices of mayor, deputy mayor and standing committee chairperson.

However, security personnel deployed at AMC headquarters remained mute spectators to the whole drama.

On hearing about the incident, Mayor Kanaji Thakor rushed to the headquarters but refused to divulge reasons for the attack. Thakor said, "We were having a co-ordination meeting with AMC officials at West Zone office when I came to know about the incident. I rushed down here."

About the reasons for the attack, he said,"It is under investigation and we will take necessary steps in this direction."

One of the AMC officials, however , said, "The mob was shouting slogans against recent demolition of around 10 temples on Kankaria Lake Front Development Project on Thursday midnight."

Later in the evening, security incharge of AMC filed a police complaint at Karanj police station. Inspector of Karanj police station,VD Gohil, told TOI that police authorities have registered a complaint. "We are getting more details about the attackers premises who damaged public property. They will be traced by night," added Gohil.

[Jai]

30-storey ICICI hub cleared

30-storey ICICI hub cleared
23 Sep 2008, 0512 hrs IST, Rajiv Shah ,TNN

GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat government has cleared ICICI's request for a high floor space index (FSI) of 3.3 to enable it to build a 30-storey building next to Infocity. ICICI proposes to set up its regional business hub here on 17 acres of land.

The regional hub, proposed at Vibrant Gujarat business summit in early 2007, is expected to cater to three states - Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. ICICI expects that over 30,000 people will be employed here.

The hub will not have residential blocks and it is still not clear where all these employees will live. ICICI proposes to shift all its regional operations to Gandhinagar. An ICICI source said, "The proposed office will accommodate existing employees along with additional recruits for ICICI and its group companies. The new office space will house around 10,000 employees in first phase."

A senior official said, "We have still not received a final word from ICICI as to when construction activity will start." Bhoomi pujan for the hub was held in August 2007, but the project did not take off due to pending FSI clearance." ICICI decided to go ahead with a separate hub instead of buying space in Gujarat International Finance Tech-City (GIFT).

[GJ10]

Ahmedabad's Newest Flyover Completed

Ahmedabad’s newest Chanakyapuri flyover is ready and will open for commuters on this Saturday, 11th of October, 2008.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will innaugarate this much awaited new flyover in Ahmedabad on Saturday evening. Flyover is located at Chanakyapuri railway crossing in Ghatlodia area of West Ahmedabad.

Constructed by Ahmedabad Urban Development authority(AUDA) this flyover will connect Ghatlodia and Sarkhej-Gandhinagar road areas in a better way. Rs 19.95 crore flyover is 798 meter long and 16.50 meter wide.

[k4ran]

Source TOI http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/3578571.cms

AHMEDABAD: Soon, your speed zone will not end at Vadodara. You will be able to race down to Mumbai in five hours flat. Ahmedabad-Mumbai expressway
is on the road to reality.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has called for bids from consultants for preliminary design , feasibility report for Vadodara-Mumbai stretch and estimate of the project which is much-awaited by both Gujaratis and Mumbaikars.

The drive from Ahmedabad to Mumbai will take less time than Shatabdi journey, which takes over seven hours. For Barodians, Mumbai will be no more than four hours away, while it's euphoria time for Surti businessmen. Officials said expressway would be designed for a speed of 120 km per hour. Amenities are proposed at 50-km , and smaller parking areas with toilet facilities at 25-km intervals.
The tender bid said firm awarded contract for study would be given just nine months from November. The expressway would definitely touch all major cities en route to Mumbai. The 400-km Vadodara-Mumbai expressway project is under phase VI of National Highway Development Project (NHDP). Sources said the decision took final shape last week.
It will be on BOT (build-operatetransfer ) basis where designing, financing , building and operating will be responsibility of the party chosen . According to officials, the stretch carries one of the highest volumes of traffic among existing national highway routes.

The consultant would have to study feasibility of expressway corridor on technical and financial grounds. The proposal also states that natural environment , human habitation and heritage sites have to be fully protected while designing the project.

The tender bid posted on NHAI website says safety in design, construction and operation has to be integrated in planning. Infrastructure for user amenities, operation and maintenance, incident management and user information system will also be part of the study.

A break-up of traffic using expressway - in terms of cars, public transport vehicles and freight carriers - and projected traffic will have to be prepared.

"The firm will have to give four to five proposals for purchase of land. Selection of expressway alignment will be after weighing pros and cons of each alternative. Government of Gujarat has earmarked a corridor for this and if chosen alignment falls into this, project can be completed quickly," said officials.

[Rasnaboy]

Realty firm Parsvnath Developers Ltd said on Wednesday it would build a five-star hotel comprising 152 rooms in Ahmedabad.

Parsvnath Hotels, a subsidiary of Parsvnath Developers, has undertaken construction of hotel at Vejalpur, Ahmedabad, the company said in a statement.

The project has received five-star category approval from the Ministry of Tourism and is expected to be operational by 2010-end, it added. The hotel project would also have a shopping mall and multiplex.

Currently, Parsvnath's ongoing project in Ahmedabad includes two retail projects - Parsvnath City Centre and Parsvnath Mall.

Parsvnath Hotels is presently developing 17 hotels across the country comprising about 2,400 rooms. It is coming up with nine 5-star, two 4-star, five 3-star and a service apartment. The construction of six hotels are in progress and is expected to be completed by 2010.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/3628502.cms

[ankushgupta]

AHMEDABAD: You have dreaded the traffic snarls on way to Kalupur as you rush to catch a train. Now, you fear Nano may add to congestion. Bury your wo
rries — simply fly over them.

An elevated corridor system, exclusively for the BRTS fleet and city buses, will help glide over the chaos below and reach right at the doorstep of Kalupur railway station. And, if you wanted to turn towards Soni Ni Chali or Prem Darwaza, do it mid-air with three elevated rotary round-abouts.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) plans to construct this in about two years at a cost of Rs 130 crore.

A recent study by CEPT University pointed out that the road skirting the railway station limits vehicular speed to 10 kmph.

"The 4.25-km-long elevated corridor system will take average speed of vehicles to 20-22 km per hour along Kalupur, Sarangpur, Relief and Gandhi roads," says city municipal commissioner IP Gautam.

The elevated corridor will start from New Cloth Market and extend to Sarangpur, which will have an elevated rotary round-about.

This round-about connects Soni Ni Chal, while another rotary near railway station connects the road to Prem Darwaza, Dariyapur Darwaza and Kalupur Darwaza.

A third rotary behind the railway station will provide access to Saraspur.

An artist's impression of the elevated BRTS corridor was recently submitted to the AMC by CEPT.

"The elevated network will have eight bus bays in either direction. The bus stops will be connected to pedestrian overbridges leading to the railway station. To get down, there will be escalators," says CEPT associate director Shivanand Swamy.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/3630636.cms

[Rasnaboy]

Ahmedabad, Oct. 24 The Pride Group of Hotels, which has added 60 rooms to its Ahmedabad property, on Friday said it plans to acquire Five Star properties in London, Mumbai and Delhi.

The company said it has added 60 rooms to its existing 110-room property in Ahmedabad, thereby making it one of the largest Five Star hotels in Gujarat. Continuing the expansion plans next year, the group plans to add 150 rooms at Pune and Nagpur, making a total of 750 rooms. This will be further increased to 1,250 rooms by the end of 2010.

“We are also planning to add 750 rooms in the cities of Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Surat, Jaipur and Navi Mumbai by 2015. The total expansion cost for these hotels is Rs 750 crore and after completion of expansion, we will have 10 hotels under Five Star luxury categories by 2015,” Mr S.P. Jain, Managing Director, Pride Group of Hotels, said here on Friday.

Fund tab

The group is now focusing more on its Biznotel (business hotel) brand and is also negotiating to acquire three Five Star properties in London, Delhi and Mumbai. The group’s expansion-cum-renovation plan of Rs 750 crore would be met from internal generations and term loans from banks and financial institutions,” Mr Jain added. ‘Pride Biznotel’ (business hotel) and ‘Pride Resort’ brand has three operating hotels each, and the group is negotiating for three more properties which will be added during this year. The group is also planning to add a total of 15 properties under the brand name of Biznotel in the cities of Nashik, Mysore, Indore, Coimbatore, Raipur, Madurai and Goa.

Pride Hotels is negotiating for properties in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. By adding these hotel properties, Pride Hotel will have a pan-India presence with 1,500 rooms in the business hotel category. Thus the group will have a total of 4,000 rooms across its three brand categories, the Pride Hotel (Luxury Hotels), Pride Biznotel (Business Hotels) and Pride Resorts (Holiday Resorts).

The Pride Hotels has also become a member of World Hotels.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...2551622300.htm

[GJ10]

Nano Charged AUDA puts Sanand on fast track

AHMEDABAD: When a Nano-charged Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) on Wednesday paved way for an ambitious development plan for
Ahmedabad Metropolitan Region at its board meet, it was Sanand that raced away with most of the goodies.

The AUDA board approved plans for a 300-ft Ring Road for Sanand, including plans for Metro rail, a regional rail and a possible mass rapid transit bus service for Sanand as well as three town planning (TP) schemes.

Officials admit that while the map for Sanand Ring Road was conceptualised at least six months ago, it was put on the fast track only after the Nano project drove into Sanand, which was hitherto a sleepy industrial town housing small units.

At 300-feet wide, Sanand Ring Road which will be Gujarats widest will run 12.75 km around the town area, encircling almost 640 sq km of residential R1 zone for Sanand town.

The road will start 300 mt from Gibpura village in Sanand taluka and skirt most of Sanand nagarpalika area.

It will terminate just 100 mt from Narmada main canal that passes tangentially across the town area. The existing Ahmedabad-Viramgam highway, that originates from Sarkhej crossroads, will touch Sanand Ring Road almost at 17 km. This ring is in near proximity to Ahmedabad-Rajkot expressway, officials said.

Likely to be almost oval in shape, officials say that after a proper alignment study and site survey, the road would probably take the shape of a hexagon. "A 300-ft road offers space for nearly 25 lanes, with each lane being 3.5 mt. But, we have plans of laying civic networks, space for multi-modal transport, a cycle lane and a pedestrian pathway," a senior AUDA official said.

[GJ10]

Will SP Ring Road be A'bads Queens Necklace?

Ahmedabad: While realty markets across the country fret, sweat worry and react to recent stock market slump, Aapnu Amdavad may well have its own dazzling queens necklace SP Ring road to fall back on.

Already city realtors are pinning their hopes on this 70-km-long ring road, where nearly 23 major residential, commercial and township projects have been lined over the past one year. For despite fresh deals coming to a screeching halt along the stretch for past three 3 to four months, realty prices have remained stable fuelling hopes that this is where the next realty boom will happen. These hopes have also been stoked by recent arrival of Nano to Sanand, transfer of Shilaj, Bopal and Ambli to AUDA, proposed mini-Japan project along Delhi-Mumbai Infrastructure Corridor (DMIC), sanctioning of Fedara international airport and frantic pace at which civic infrastructure was laid down in Nikol-Naroda and Odhav.

"Each portion of Ring Road offers something to look forward to. If its Nano on its western part, its GIFT city on the north that has fuelled residential areas in Zundal and Chandkheda, while to its south, areas like Changodar and Bavla gained prominence with mini-Japan, DMIC and sanctioning of Fedara airport. On its east, civic infrastructure laid by AMC in Nikol and Odhav led to a number of schemes in the area," explains former GIHED president Vijay Shah. Realtor Jaxay Shah feels that realtors dont want to play their cards now, which explains why land rates have remained stagnant for past three months instead of slumping.

"Instances of distress selling on this stretch were practically negligible, even when stock markets bled. With its strategic and logistic links with south and north Gujarat as well as Saurashtra, new investment opportunities will open up along this stretch and SP Ring Road will also emerge as an anchor to satellite townships," he adds.

[ankushgupta]

AHMEDABAD: Planning to catch a train at the Kalupur railway station? You could be spoilt for choice. For, Kalupur is on the verge of having a
seamless, multi-modal transport — the bus rapid transit system (BRTS) that will run on an elevated corridor, the metro rail and a regional railway network that will also connect Sanand, which will soon see the Nano plant coming up.

And, not only will a bus rush to the station every minute on the dedicated the elevated corridor and the metro roll right up to the station’s doorstep, one can buy a single smart card and travel in any of these modes.

Planners at Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation have planned a two-km stretch of metro rail from Dilli Darwaza towards the railway station. The proposal is being put up for approval before the state government.

"The elevated BRTS corridor will not only help commuters escape traffic near the railway station, it will also have a-bus-a-minute service stopping at six to eight bus bays along the 4.25-km-long corridor," says an AMC official.

"Right now, there are around 2,000 bus trips in a day to Kalupur alone, with two lakh commuters using the service. The number of bus stops will help us distribute the BRTS buses coming from different directions at one go. This will ensure our a-bus-a-minute system," he adds.

Work on the Kalupur elevated bus corridor is expected to begin from December 2009 and will take two years to complete. A validation study is on about the metro rail project and work is expected to begin by 2013.

The third mode — sub-urban rail network — will provide rail connectivity to commuters from the station.The number of stations will be increased on sub-urban rail routes to Kalol, Sanand, Mehmedabad, Dehgam, Gandhinagar and Bareja. This process will begin by 2014.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/3644366.cms

[GJ10]

US Giant Picks Ahmedabad over 6 Cities for Plant

AHMEDABAD: When the world’s leading R&D equipment maker, supplier and services provider ThermoFisher Scientific Inc decided to set up Asias
first clinical trial supplies manufacturing and distribution plant, it turned to Ahmedabad.

The $11-billion US giant chose Ahmedabad after a rigorous analysis of multiple pharma and biotech SEZs. "We considered six other locations including Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Mohali," says Fisher BioPharma Services India
Pvt Ltd president and managing director Ram Gupta.

The company has acquired 15 acres at Zydus Cadilas Pharmez at Matoda and is putting up a 1.5 lakh sq ft facility to cater to global markets. In the first phase it is injecting $17 million in the greenfield facility that will commence production in the third week of November. Plans are afoot to invest another $50-odd milllion over the next five years in quadrupling capacities.

Incidentally, the Ahmedabad facility is ThermoFishers sixth clinial trial supplies facility and the first of its kind in Asia. The US company has three such plants in US and one each in UK and Switzerland.

With over 30,000 employees, the NYSE-listed ThermoFisher caters to nearly 3.5 lakh customers in the pharma and biotech space across 150 countries.

"With pharma and biotech MNCs increasingly looking at India as a human clinical trials destination for new drugs, there was tremendous pressure from clients to set up base in the shortest possible time and Ahmedabad was the only city with completely approved pharma SEZs," explains Gupta.What also swung things in Ahmedabads favour was the good manpower availability, superior quality of life and affordable living. "Someone renting a 2BHK apartment in Mumbai or Bangalore can in the same budget easily get a 4BHK apartment or bungalow with a bit of greenery thrown in here," he says.

"Being a pharma and CRO hub, manpower with good technical capabilities at the middle level is easily available here. Its also easier to move top talent from cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad here because of the quality of life," he adds.

[GJ10]

AMC draws up plan to revamp solid waste management in city

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) of Ahmedabad is slated to get a major boost with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) planning to invest Rs 141.89 crore for the total revamp of SWM in the city.

The project comes under the umbrella of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and has contributions by the Union Government, the Gujarat government and AMC.

Prashant A Pandya, Deputy Director, Solid Waste Management, AMC said: “Ahmedabad produces about 2200 tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) everyday. To manage it properly, this project is the need of the hour. AMC will bear about 50 per cent of the cost, while the Centre would defray 35 per cent and the state government would bear rest of the cost.” He further said that the AMC has prepared a detailed project report and submitted it to the state government for final approval.

Along with a proposal to segregate non-biodegradable waste and draw up transportation routes for the Dumpers, AMC has also submitted the details of infrastructure facilities to be constructed at the new Secured Landfill Site at Gyaspur. The site, with an area of about 1084 hectares, is proposed to have a 2800 metre-long wire fence around the landfill area. This has been done to prevent the city rag pickers from accessing the garbage area.

Among other measures, AMC has also signed a formal engineering, procurement and construction contract with a company called Solid Waste To Electricity Company (SELCO) International Limited for setting up a 700 tonnes per day capacity MSW processing unit at the new landfill site. The plant covering an area of three hectares proposes to produce about 4.5 lakh units of electricity every month.

[GJ10]

Is riverfront project inclusive?

AHMEDABAD: Whatever grandeur and pomp the coveted Sabarmati riverfront project may promise Amdavadis in the coming years, it now faces an unusual
dilemma.

Will this multi-crore project remain a mere eyecandy in city’s urban history and turn into an indulgence of the rich and the land sharks or can it integrate the citys bustling culture and its poor towards the citys ethos.

A three-week seminar and workshop at CEPT university, starting November 24 would see a number of architecture scholars and involve workshops for students from across the country on the subject. Environmental issues too would be discussed. The workshop would focus on ways of architectural expression of civic choices that can be integrated fully in the riverfront design to uphold the citys social values.

These values, according to architecture scholars, can have a direct influence on design decisions of the riverfront which must answer to how well it appeals to all citizens equally, especially the poorest. The workshop would also study the regional aspects of Sabarmati river development.

What architects fear today is that an uncontrollable biased growth of the riverfront will only bring developers, high-rise buildings, and limit free access to the river for people belonging to various classes. Besides the idea of realising parks, greenways for the city, places for people to sit around, children, strolling, sport and leisure activities along banks, would only take a back seat. Also the consequences of roads that would only act as a thoroughfare for fast traffic for the wealthy, would limit the Sabarmati to a few.

"Buildings, however, impressive or even beautiful they may be, fail, if they do not embody what Louis Kahn expresses as a search for meaning in community. This is the principle of the workshop," says a senior professor at CEPT.

Among other issues, the workshop would work on consequences of the development of the river, both upstream and downstream. The workshop would also look at the social, economic and cultural identity of the riverfront in the coming years. Besides a model of an "all green" alternative of the riverfront, minus the traffic would be featured at the workshop.

Ok... personal view, which others will def disagree with, but I honestly feel that Ahmedabad is the only major city in India where a project like this would even get underway. Yet even then, idiots are claiming that by removing slums and giving a facelift to the whole riverfront, Ahmedabad will somehow be losing something!

Back in the days when Shakespeare was putting on plays at the Globe, the South Bank of the Thames was teeming with slums, prostitution, potent blindness-causing alcohol and all manner of crime and filth.

It was only the Great Fire that gave London a chance to completely rebuild, redesign and emerge as the most efficient and therefore important city in the world for many hundreds of years.

Sometimes these socialist-minded people need to realise that the decisions that India needs to make right now aren't all that different to what the West had to do albeit a few hundred years ago! They should really stop having a go at the people who are actually trying to make a difference.

A nice Riverfront isn't an essential by any means, but it's something that will improve the image of the City for investors and improve the quality of life and general civic pride of the local population, its not Ahmedabad's fault that it is one of the few cities in India that actually has adequate infrastructure (roads/water/electricity etc), therefore allowing it to develop some of the seemingly more "frivolous" aspects of city planning such as riverfronts and parks.

[GJ10]

Residential zone to come up around Sanand Ringroad

AHMEDABAD: Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) has put on a fast track the proposal for Sanand Ring Road. In a hurry to submit a report on the 300-feet-wide ring road for Sanand town, survey work on the road has begun and a report will be submitted to the state urban development department in two-and-half months.

Sanand Ring Road will be Gujarat’s widest and will run for 12.75 km around the town area, consisting of almost 640 sq km of residential R1 zone.

AUDA sources add that expecting speedy work on the Nano plant in Chharodi village, feasibility studies, survey work and measuring of land necessary for acquisition have been initiated. A team of officials has already set base in Sanand for survey works.

"We have initiated contour studies, alignment studies of the road and measuring built-up area of residential and commercial areas. Besides, we have initiated procedures for ring roads for other growth centres around Ahmedabad like Kalol, Dehgam and Mehemdabad," said a senior AUDA officer in the town planning department. He added that all these growth centres would get a 300-feet ring road to divert highway traffic. "In case of Sanand, our survey reports will be sent to the UD department for approval in two-and-half months time," he said.

The AUDA board has earlier approved plans for Sanand, including those for metro rail, a regional rail and a possible mass rapid transit bus service as well as three town planning (TP) schemes.

Sanand Ring Road will start 300 mt from Gibpura village in Sanand taluka and skirt most of Sanand nagarpalika area.

It will terminate just 100 mt from Narmada main canal that passes tangentially across the town area. The existing Ahmedabad-Viramgam highway, that originates from Sarkhej crossroads, will touch Sanand Ring Road almost at 17 km. This road is in near proximity to Ahmedabad-Rajkot expressway, officials said.

The road will be almost oval in shape. Officials say that after a proper alignment study and site survey, the road will probably take the shape of a hexagon.

"A 300-ft road offers space for nearly 25 lanes, with each lane being 3.5 mt But, we have plans of laying civic networks, space for multimodal transport, a cycle lane and a pedestrian pathway," a senior AUDA official said.

[Rasnaboy]

NEW DELHI: SKF India, a global solutions and technology provider of bearings and seals, would invest Rs. 450 crore to set up manufacturing units in Ahmedabad and Hardwar. The company has also signed an agreement with Suzlon Energy to supply mainshaft bearings. The Ahmedabad facility would focus on industrial bearings and the Hardwar plant on automotive bearings.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/20/stor...2061361800.htm

[Rasnaboy]

$17-m project to begin work in January; this is its 20th centre.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project complements its existing clinical services operations in the US, Europe and Asia.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahmedabad, Nov. 19 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, the Fortune-300 $10-billion global leader serving science, on Wednesday announced commencement of its new, full-service clinical packaging and distribution facility here, which is expected to commence operation in January 2009.

This is Thermo Fisher’s 20th facility in India, called Fisher Clinical Services, on which the company has invested $17 million. The facility, located in the Zydus Cadila-developed Pharmez, the pharma SEZ near Ahmedabad, would support the growing demand for bio-pharma services.

The 1.50-lakh sq ft facility would focus on packaging global distribution and logistics management of tightly regulated pharmaceutical samples to patients participating in clinical trials across the globe.

It complements the company’s existing clinical services operations in the US, Europe and Asia, said Mr Marijn E. Dekkers, President and CEO, Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Employee base

The company now has the largest presence in India of any company in its industry, with more than 600 employees and 20 facilities. It has invested $100 million in India since 2000, made two acquisitions, and built the Ahmedabad facility.

It hopes to attract 10 to 15 major global pharmaceutical companies for clinical trials in the next 3 to 5 years, and is expecting $125 million worth of revenue in 2009-10.

Already, Thermo Fisher commands a 40 per cent share globally in this sector, having about 900 trials in progress, being conducted by different companies.

Sister concern

In the next couple of years, it would set up another arm, Lancaster Laboratories, at the same premises here as a sister service organisation to take up either design service, project management or IT services.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...2051762100.htm

[gradybush]

Thanks GJ10 and Rasnaboy for the updates. I think you are doing a great job as this forum is underrepresented by people who reside in Gujarat to get all the news we can.

Btw, GJ10...I am GJ11. :-)