Gujarat - Projects and Development

[GJ10]

Parvasnath signs MoU to develop projects in Gujarat

Real estate company Parsvnath Developers Ltd., has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gujarat government to develop projects at an investment of Rs 1600 crore over a period of 2-3 years.

The company would develop townships, group housing, commercial complexes, IT parks at Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Vadodra, Surat, Jamnagar and other districts in Gujarat, it said in a statement.

The MoU was signed by GUDC Managing Director K Srinivas and Parsvnath Vice President (Gujarat and Strategic Planning) Ashim Gandhi.

Gujarat had invited investments from real estate developers to set up townships, participate in construction and management of utilities in the state and facilitate implementation of such projects.


Source : The Hindu (PTI)

http://newsbuzz.sulekha.com/blog/pos...to-develop.htm

[superdesi2100]

Economic Times - April 11, 2007

[superdesi2100]

Economic Times - April 11, 2007

[superdesi2100]

End to traffic snarls? Modi to inaugurate 2-lane stretch

If State’s riding the ‘industrial boom’, then traffic snarls can’t come a cropper! And hence, Chief Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the two-laned 76-km-long stretch of the ring road, from Vaishnodevi to Bakrol on Wednesday, which is touted to ease traffic on the outskirts of the city in a big way.

With 25,000 per car unit of traffic diverted to this stretch, bottlenecks may no longer trouble people, it is said.

The CM will also lay the foundation stone for four-laning of the road in view of the expected increase of traffic due to fast industrial growth in the region. Though a big portion of it was completed about a year ago and traffic was also allowed on some parts, major stretch of the road remained unused due to non-completion of two railway underpasses.

The railway underpasses_ one at Vatva measuring around 13.5 m and another at Tragad measuring one km_ were completed recently. Tragad railway underpass is reported to be the biggest railway underpass in the country, in terms of length.

Built by AUDA, construction of the two-laned ring road, which is 60 m wide, had begun in 2002 and completed recently at a total cost of Rs 230 crore. The ring road hits Ahmedabad-Vadodara NH-8 at eight different places and State Highway at 13 places.

Keeping in view the expected increase in traffic movement AUDA has decided on four-laning of the road at an estimated cost of Rs 380 crore. AUDA CEO J G Pandya said the CM will lay the foundation stone of the four-laning project on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis on Wednesday.

“The project will be completed within one and a half years,’’ said Pandya.

[GJ10]

For anyone interested in what is (meant to be) going on in Gujarati cities, in terms of City planning, here are some links to official City Planning documents. All come from the official Municipal Corporation websites of the relevant cities.

Ahmedabad

City Redevelopment 6 Year Plan pdf file (180 pages)
http://www.egovamc.com/cdp/AMC_CDP.pdf

Slum Development pdf file (38 pages)
http://www.egovamc.com/snp/snp.pdf

BRTS Main Page - Lots of pdf files about various parts of the project
http://www.egovamc.com/BRTS/BRTS.ASP

Street Development - Choice of ppt or zip file
http://www.egovamc.com/ISDP/int_str_dev.asp

Kankaria Lake Development Main Page - Various information
http://www.egovamc.com/kankaria/KANKARIA.asp

Surat

City Development 6 Year Plan - Zip file, contains 180 page pdf
http://www.suratmunicipal.gov.in/con...lan/main.shtml

Vadodara

City Development Plan - Split into many pdf files.
http://www.vadodaracity.com/cdp_report.htm

Rajkot
City Development Plan - Split into many pdf files.
http://www.rmc.gov.in/html/jnnurmpro1.html

Jamnagar

Some documents in Gujarati*
http://www.mcjamnagar.com/other_info.asp

*Includes peculiar document that lists the name and address of every building that is 5storeys or above (all 145 of them!!!)

[pding]

Originally Posted by GJ10

For anyone interested in what is (meant to be) going on in Gujarati cities, in terms of City planning, here are some links to official City Planning documents. All come from the official Municipal Corporation websites of the relevant cities.

Ahmedabad

City Redevelopment 6 Year Plan pdf file (180 pages)
http://www.egovamc.com/cdp/AMC_CDP.pdf

Slum Development pdf file (38 pages)
http://www.egovamc.com/snp/snp.pdf

BRTS Main Page - Lots of pdf files about various parts of the project
http://www.egovamc.com/BRTS/BRTS.ASP

Street Development - Choice of ppt or zip file
http://www.egovamc.com/ISDP/int_str_dev.asp

Kankaria Lake Development Main Page - Various information
http://www.egovamc.com/kankaria/KANKARIA.asp

Surat

City Development 6 Year Plan - Zip file, contains 180 page pdf
http://www.suratmunicipal.gov.in/con...lan/main.shtml

Vadodara

City Development Plan - Split into many pdf files.
http://www.vadodaracity.com/cdp_report.htm

Rajkot
City Development Plan - Split into many pdf files.
http://www.rmc.gov.in/html/jnnurmpro1.html

Jamnagar

Some documents in Gujarati*
http://www.mcjamnagar.com/other_info.asp

*Includes peculiar document that lists the name and address of every building that is 5storeys or above (all 145 of them!!!)

are such comprehensive reports available for all major cities or is it just Gujarat?

[GJ10]

It really just depends on how up to date the city's municipal corporation website is, some are really amateurly done and never updated.

Randomly searched a few cities

Pune
http://www.egovpmc.com/tp/cdp.asp

Indore - Pretty amateur site, couldnt find anything, but it might be there, only some of the site doesnt show up for me as I dont have Hindi fonts installed.
http://indore.nic.in/glance.htm

Bhopal
http://www.bhopalmunicipal.com/Bhopal_CDP.pdf

Chandigarh
http://mcchandigarh.gov.in/cdp.pdf

Mangalore - Couldnt find anything
http://www.mangalorecity.gov.in/

Vizag - Page times out
http://202.153.45.201/onlinequeries/townplanning.asp

Its a bit hit and miss really. If theres any particular city you are looking for, just type the name followed by "municipal corporation" in google, and hopefully there will be a website. If there is, theres likely to be a "projects" section.

Hope that helps.

[superdesi2100]

Economic Times. April 12, 2007.

[superdesi2100]

Ahmedabad plays perfect host to corporate culture

AHMEDABAD is playing host to the corporate house culture. As the city increasingly catches the attention of the leading corporates across the country, the players are fast dotting the city with their independent corporate set-ups. Reliance Industries Ltd, Reliance ADAG, Sanghi Industries, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, L&T and United Phosphorus among others have either zeroed in on properties or are contemplating to have their own corporate offices in the city.

If the owners of Wagh Bakri tea Gujarat Tea Processors and Packers Ltd did it in 2006, the Essar Group has just began operations from its new regional headquarters. Call it a trend, or a pressing need to stand tall among the rest, corporates are preferring to create their own set-ups rather than housing themselves in rented establishments. As rentals have nearly doubled in prime areas, companies believe that having their own space makes economic sense as well helping them to create an identity of their own.

Alok Sanghi of Sanghi Cement, who wants to shift his office from Ambavadi and is looking out for a plot near Parimal Gardens, reasons, “Apart from being economical, an independent setup helps in building a brand image and promote the organisational culture.”

The Ambani brothers, RADAG and Reliance Industries, are both planning their corporate offices in Ahmedabad. Sources say that RIL wants around 40,000-60,000 square feet for its corporate house. Pharma firm Dishman already owns a piece of land in Ambli and has plans to set up its corporate office there once the floor space index is raised.

Professor of marketing at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Abraham Koshy says that an independent set up represents a company’s brand and helps a company to nurture its own culture and have a better control system in place.

United Phosphorous has also sought a sizeable plot from the Gujarat government for its corporate office in Gandhinagar. “We are tired of renting office space for ourselves and it makes business sense to have a place of your own,” said Raju Shroff, the chairman and managing director of UPL. Currently, the group operates from a small office in Ankleshwar.

Ahmedabad-based ISP IceNet’s CEO Chirag Mehta, too, is keen to move out from their rented office on the CG Road to 200 feet Ring Road. According to him, it has become embarassing to have foreign delegates visiting the office in commercial establishments littered with paan spits. “We have almost zeroed in on a plot of land and are in the process of negotiating the land prices,” he said.

Projects head at Claris, Pankaj Patel, recollected that they packed their bags from a commercial building off CG Road for an independent set-up near Parimal Gardens in 1996. “Apart from being noticed now, we are able to manage our employees and treat our guests the way we want to,” he said.

“Office rentals have shot up. Apart from big corporates, even smaller companies which are expanding operations are going for independent setups,” said managing director of Navratna Organisers and Developers Ltd Pranav Shah.

The land rate in Ahmedabad is around Rs 70,000-Rs 80,000 per square feet on CG road and Rs 50,000-70,000 per square yard on SG road. The commercial space rentals on ground floor are around 12,000- 14,000 per square feet and around Rs 6000-Rs 8000 per square feet on the first floor.

FACT FILE

As rentals have almost doubled in prime areas, companies prefer having owned space

Apart from being economical, an independent set-up helps building a brand image

The land rate in Ahmedabad is around Rs 70,000-Rs 80,000 per sq ft on CG road & Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 per sq yard on SG road

Economic Times. April 12, 2007.

[GJ10]

Jamnagar Farmers strike Gold in SEZ

JAMNAGAR: West Bengal may have lost its Nandigram SEZ to protesting landowners, but smart Gujarat farmers are raking in the moolah thanks to the deals struck with SEZ developers.

Nowhere have farmers had it so good as Jamnagar where many have fixed deals for as high as Rs 3.09 lakh per 2.5 acre for non-irrigated land and Rs 4.06 lakh per 2.5 acre for irrigated land with Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RIL).

Revenue records show the same land was valued anywhere between Rs 17,000 to Rs 1.84 lakh per 2.5 acres. "Farmers here have managed good bargains compared to the productivity of the land. Selling off the land at these prices was a better option for them,"says resident deputy collector Himanshu Patel.

RIL has picked up n e a r l y 8,000 acres in villages like Nava g a m , Kanalus, Kanach -hikari Padana and Derachhikari.

"Nearly 3,000 acres of this 8,000 acres was wasteland and we got it after panchayats passed resolutions. We are acquiring another 3,000 acres of private land,"says RIL group president (corporate affairs) Parimal Nathwani.

RIL officials point out that the Supreme Court had recently ruled in their favour after 55 farmers protested against land acquisition, paving the way for future acquisitions.

Now the smarter among these farmers are pumping the compensation amount into buying huge tracts of land around the new SEZ limits, to cash in on future expansions of SEZ.

Others have bought light commercial vehicles, dumpers, JCBs and taxis and have leased them out to RIL for transporting men and material.

Today a chunk of the 2100 vehicle fleet engaged with Reliance is owned by farmers who sold their land to the company.

"In the last six months we have sold 665 LCVs and heavy vehicles," says Cargo Motors manager Haresh Oza happily.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/1835439.cms

[GJ10]

CNG Cogen will fuel Guj Gas Power Play

MUMBAI: Gujarat Gas Company Ltd (GGCL) will ramp up its cogeneration (cogen) business to achieve the targeted 100 mw by 2012, envisaging a CAGR of 37%.

The Rs 700-crore Ahmedabad-based company plans to spend Rs 50 crore to expand the cogen business and expects it to turn profitable during this calendar year.

The company’s cogeneration divison is engaged in providing financing and maintenance services to industrial units which plan to convert their captive naphtha-powered power plants to combined heat and power units using natural gas.

Gujarat Gas has also been aggressively boosting its CNG business — expanding its CNG infrastructure from 2 stations in 2002 to 20 in 2006. In 2007, it is expected to add 8 more stations and has earmarked Rs 60 crore for the same.

The company plans to incur an additional capex of Rs 115 crore for 2008 as well, which would be financed through internal accruals.

GGCL, the biggest gas player in Gujarat, expects its Vapi and Jhagadia units to start contributing to the topline this year and become profitable by next year. The company will continue to focus on higher margin retail industrial and CNG segments.

Talking to DNA Money, Mehul Thanawala, manager-corporate affairs, GGCL, said, “Apart from expanding our cogen business, we will ramp up our CNG business . Currently CNG contributes 5% to sales.”

Experts said GGCL operates in one of the most industrialised states — Gujarat, which accounts for 35% of the total natural gas consumed in the country.The demand in Gujarat could jump to 94.5 million metric standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) in 2010 from 54.1 (mmscmd) in 2005. Surat, Vapi will be the major demand centres. This augurs well for GGCL as it has a strong foothold in Surat, Bharuch and Ankleshwar.

The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation’s (GSRTC) move to convert its fleet to CNG is also a potential windfall for GGCL. Analysts said the new moves are likely to boost CNG volumes and improve GGCL’s margins going forward. However, as some of its gas supplies are denominated in dollars, any weakening of the rupee could hurt bottomline, they added.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1090503

[GJ10]

State to train unemployed youths to work in malls, hotels

Vadodara, April 9: TO tackle urban unemployment, the state government now has a training scheme wherein youths are guaranteed employment in city malls, multiplexes, departmental stores and the hotel industry courtesy. As a run-up to the Assembly elections, the government had launched yet another scheme. Umeed (Hope), an-employment oriented training programme in Gujarat, made its debut in Vadodara on Monday. The scheme to be undertaken by a government-NGO partnership aims at providing training to 500 unemployed urban youths in the city. Surveying the market needs in Vadodara city, the youths will be trained for entry-level jobs in logistics, information technology, hospitality and customer relations and sales.

Umeed is an undertaking of the Gujarat Urban Development Mission (GUDM), an urban development state ministry undertaking, which plans to tackle urban unemployment, with an ambitious target to provide training and guaranteed employment to 1,500 youths per city in three years. The scheme which is being launched on a pilot basis in Vadodara, has a three-pronged partnership with the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), NGO Jan Vikas and GUDM. Youths eligibile for the scheme should have studied up til standard eight at least, and should be in the age category of 18-30 years. They will be given a three-month training in four different course modules for a course fee of Rs 500, the rest being subsidised by GUDM, Vadodara Municipal Corporation(VMC) and the NGO.

"We will also give them training in spoken English, personality development and 80 per cent will be practical,'' said Mayuri Trivedi, of Jan Vikas, announcing cent per cent guarantee of getting a job to those who opt for the training.

Those trained under the scheme will work as front office receptionists, data entry operators or hotel stewards, having been exposed to basics of the industry requirement. Mahendra Raj Singh, VMC project officer, said that the need for the programme was assessed by the NGO, which carried out a market scan in five days for Vadodara's human resources demand.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fulls...?newsid=230898

[IndiaRocks]

Courts have been working two shifts to go through the pile of cases that have built up over the years...

http://www.gujaratindia.com/media/ne...x?News_id=1012

[IndiaRocks]

Gujarat to promote heritage tourism

http://www.gujaratindia.com/media/ne...x?News_id=1010

[superdesi2100]

Nabard on a new high in Gujarat

NATIONAL Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development’s (Nabard) assistance in Gujarat has reached a new high during the year 2006-07. Total sanctions under various activities aggregated Rs 2,234 crore, reflecting a growth of 11.3% over the previous year’s Rs 2,177 crore.
Nabard has been providing loans to the state government for rural infrastructure projects under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). During 2006-07, Gujarat availed of maximum assistance among all other states as sanctions and disbursements aggregated Rs 987.6 crore and Rs 879 crore, respectively. Cumulatively, loans aggregating Rs 5,682 crore were sanctioned for implementation of 31,604 projects (including 24,174 check dams) and so far, government of Gujarat has availed of loans amounting to Rs 3,682 crore. In consonance with its policy to promote income and employment generation in rural areas, number of initiatives aggregating Rs 80 lakh were taken under non-farm sector.
Thirty-five rural entrepreneurship development programmes with a grant amount of Rs 26.99 lakh were sanctioned to 911 trainees. Skill development initiative programmes were also sanctioned for Rs 4.45 lakh benefiting 308 rural youths. The first rural haat in the state with Nabard assistance of Rs 2.40 lakh was sanctioned to Virpur Gram Panchayat in Jetpur block of Rajkot district says a Nabard release. Meanwhile Nabard has posted district development managers in 19 districts of Gujarat with the opening of new office at Anand during the last year, the release added.

Economic Times. April 14, 2007.

[IndiaRocks]

Miscellaneous March News from http://www.indextb.com/news.html

Dahej SEZ attracts major companies for investment

While the nation debates over the feasibility of SEZ, Gujarat is all set to go ahead with its plans to set up as may SEZs as possible. A case in point is that of Dahej SEZ being jointly developed by State infrastructure development agency - Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation and ONGC over a chunk of land admeasuring an area of 1500 acres mainly for chemical and petrochemical industries. The players who are likely to set up their operations in this SEZ include big companies like Godrej & Boyce, ABG Shipyard, Gujarat Flurochemcials, Dorf Ketal, Saraswati Syndicate and Sajjan India Ltd. Put together, these companies are going to invest over Rs 8000 million in their respective projects. This will be over and above Rs.135,000 million being invested by ONGC which is planning to set up a C2C3 extraction plant and a large petrochemical complex.

Gujarat preparing to fly high with FDI

Gujarat may soon get its first foreign direct investment in the aviation sector. The investments will come up in the form of joint ventures with Ahmedabad-based The Ahmedabad Aviation and Aeronautics (AAA), a subsidiary of Electrotherm India, who plan to set up facilities for developing human resources, maintenance, repairs and overhaul and later aircraft manufacturing also. This company is already in dialogue with aviation players in Canada, US, Europe and Israel to form multiple joint ventures for separate projects. The company has already signed an agreement with the Canadian Aviation Institute at Georgia College to offer courses in airline operations, airport planning and operations and aviation law from June 2007. These projects are a part of Rs.50,000 million worth of MOU signed between AAA and Government of Gujarat during the recently concluded Vibrant Gujarat : Global Investors’ Summit. Under the agreement, the company plans to set up an Aviation City in next five years’ time.

Longest aerial ropeway in the country at Grinar

A 3 km long ropeway at the Girnar mountain in Junagadh District said to be the longest in the country, is to start operations soon. A leading company in this sector, Usha Breco engaged in the manufacture of aerial passenger ropeways will commission and maintain this ropeway at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,000 million. This ropeway will have a capacity to transport about 800 pilgrims from the place of origin to destination within 15-20 minutes time. With the commissioning of this ropeway, buoyancy is expected to be witnessed in the tourist flow in Gujarat.

Gujarat implementing the concept of country-specific SEZs

From that of product specific SEZs, Gujarat is now moving on to setting up country specific SEZs. Such an SEZ will have companies from that particular country and accordingly the facilities like schools, cultural centers, religious places and even exclusive food restaurant would be set up to make the foreign investors feel at home. To start with, proposals are on anvil to set up such SEZs for countries like Japan and Korea. For the purpose, high-level delegations led by the Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi comprising senior bureaucrats and industrialists from the state are likely to visit Japan in April and Korea in May this year.

GSPC planning to develop Bhavnagar port

The state owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) had opened dialogue with an oil and gas exploration service provider - Arya offshore based in Mumbai, to develop Bhavnagar port. GSPC and Arya will look at technology sharing for various upstream and gas services. They are exploring possibilities to float a joint venture service company. With an investment of Rs.2000 million for privatization project, GSPC proposes to develop the region as a hub for its exploration and production activities. During the recently concluded Global Investors Summit, GSPC had signed an MOU or setting up such a facility including the development of Bhavnagar Port. This port is considered to be an ideal location for advanced oil exploration base in terms of providing logistic supports to supply vessels. The port is well connected with the State Highway as well as with Bhavnagar city, located at a distance of 10 km, with broad gauge railway line and airport facilities.

[IndiaRocks]

New Flyover Plan cleared

http://www.baroda.com/diary.html#Flyover

Jetalpur Flyover Plans Cleared: One obstacle to the construction of the Jetalpur flyover near the railway station in Sayajigunj has been eliminated with the Gujarat High Court vacating the stay on encroachment removal. The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has now initiated the process of land acquisition to build the approach road to the flyover. The project will cost Rs. 90 million, and the civic body has already paid Rs. 31.6 million to the railway authorities towards the construction expenses. The railway authorities will construct the larger portion of the flyover, the portion over the railway tracks, and VMC will build the approach roads from both sides. It will be 750 metres long and 8.40 metres wide.

New Railway Platform in the works

http://www.baroda.com/diary.html#One

One More Railway Platform: Now that the sixth platform is ready at the Vadodara railway station, plans have been made to develop a seventh platform to decongest railway traffic. The Indian Railways Board has sanctioned Rs. 150 million to build the platform. The seventh platform will be able to handle 26-coach trains. The facilities will be the same as the ones on platform number one.

[superdesi2100]

Jobless in Gujarat? No longer

WITH huge industrial investments expected to flow into the state in the coming years, the Gujarat government has set a target of providing jobs to over 1.25 lakh persons during 2007-08 as against 1.11 lakh placed successfully in 2006-07.

Enthused by 363 fresh memorandum of understandings (MoUs) worth Rs 4.61 lakh crore signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Investors’ Summit in January 2007, the employment and training department has set this higher target. There were 8.03 lakh job seekers on the live register on all the 23 employment exchanges in the state as of December 2006 end, according to official sources.

There were 88.29% skilled and semi-skilled persons on the live register. The state has made innovative efforts in finding jobs for them in the private sector by means of industrial and ‘army bharti melas’ (recruitment fairs) and job centres. Besides, these employment exchanges also helped in providing guidance to unemployed candidates to undergo various types of training like air-hostesses, stewards, gas mechanics, call centre assistants and BPO centre assistants. The annual development plan has accorded high priority for employment generation through various state and centrally sponsored schemes. The emphasis would be placed on self employment schemes in agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy development, village and small industries and allied activities. High priority is accorded to maximise employment with special emphasis on agrobased rural industries.

The centrally and state sponsored employment generation schemes include rural development, cottage industries, Gujarat Municipal Finance Board, Gujarat Minority Finance and Development Corporation, Water Development (Irrigation), major and medium irrigation projects, command area development and flood control. Over and above the completion of the multicrore and multi-purpose Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL), which is considered to be the lifeline of the state, it is likely to generate large scale employment due to transformation of the agrobased economy of Gujarat.

YOU’RE HIRED

The dept has been enthused by 363 fresh MoUs worth Rs 4.61 lakh crore signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Investors’ Summit
The state has searched for private sector jobs through industrial, Army bharti melas and job centres
Employment exchanges
have guided candidates with training for air-hostesses, stewards, gas mechanics, call centre assistants and BPO assistants
Emphasis will be on self employment schemes in agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy development, village and small industries and allied activities

Economic Times Epaper April 18, 2007

[superdesi2100]

Economic Times epaper. April 18, 2007.

[superdesi2100]

Economic Times epaper. April 18, 2007.