Gujarat International Finance Tec-City


Gujarat International Finance Tec City located on the banks of the Sabarmati River and is around from Ahmedabad International Airport and is India's first operational smart city and international financial services centre. It was promoted by the Government of Gujarat as a greenfield project. The city is designed for walk to work concept and includes commercial and residential complexes.
The city is connected though 4-6 lane State and National Highways. A double corridor metro system is being constructed to connect GIFT City to the nearby airport and various parts of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.
The idea for GIFT was conceived during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit 2007 and the initial planning was done by East China Architectural Design & Research Institute, which is credited with planning of much of modern-day Shanghai. The GIFT City’s plan is for the of land area to have approximately ~110 buildings with ~ of built-up area, of which around 67% is commercial, 22% is for residential and 11% is social facilities. Currently ~ of commercial space is operational, and another is under development. As of now an investment of Rs 10,500 crore has already been committed for GIFT City. The city has an integrated development model which has been spread out in three phases. Each phase is designed as integrated sustainable development, for example the first phase itself includes development of office space, residential, school, hotel, club etc.
Currently approximately 225 units/companies are operational with more than 12000 professionals employed in the City.

Utilities

Electricity

The 400 MW electricity supply is planned to be 99.999% reliable. All the electricity cables are laid in the Utility Tunnel in dry area protected by thick concrete wall in redundant paths.

Telecommunication Services

GIFT City offers 99.99 % uptime of Telecom Services since start of operations. Currently there are 10 Telecom service providers available with bouquet of services. The entire city is based on concept of FTTX.The fiber optic is laid in fault tolerant ring architecture so as to ensure maximum uptime of services.Every home and office of the city is connected with Fibre optic cable.

Intelligent City

Every building in GIFT City is an Intelligent building. Every public servicing system in each of the buildings has inbuilt intelligence in it. These intelligent system are there to offer ease of use and safety to users. The Intelligent Building Management System guidelines issued by GIFT City to all developers ensures that building level services are at par with international standards.

Piped gas

is distributed to every house and building via pipes, which is cheaper and safer than cylinders. Gas supply to the City is done from the existing gas network of GSPL, the state-owned company for gas transmission pipelines. Piped natural gas is already in distribution in the nearby cities of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

Air conditioning

India's first city-level DCS is operational at GIFT City. The first phase of this DCS with a capacity of 10,000 TR is in operation since April 2015. It reduces the operational cost by 30-40% and avoids the capital cost of implementing individual air conditioner in each building.

Solid waste management

All waste in the city are collected and taken to processing plant by vacuum chutes installed at every floor of all buildings. The waste is automatically sucked through underground chutes at a high speed of, and is being treated through various methods including plasma gasification.

Transportation

GIFT aims at providing a transportation network that ensures accessibility, easy and fast mobility and accidental free traffic. This is being achieved by:
  1. Using a multimodal mix of transport systems for both intercity transport and intra-city transport.
  2. Using a walk-to-work concept as part of urban planning with a nodal split of 10:90 between private and public transport.
  3. Use of electric personal rapid transit systems within the city.
GIFT City will also have its own metro stations and will be connected to Ahmedabad metro network by March 2024.
Indian Railways railway lines pass the city on the east and west sides; the closest stations are in Dabhoda and Naroda.

Landmarks

As part of Phase-I development, around of BUA has already been allotted from the of BUA available for commercial, residential and social uses.
In an interview with Financial Express on Sept 11, 2019, Mr. Tapan Ray, Managing Director and Group CEO of GIFT City, said that GIFT City has been able to attract committed investment of around Rs 11,000 crore so far.

Construction timeline

Two commercial towers, each of 28 floors called the GIFT ONE and GIFT TWO have been finished. Tendering for the next bunch of towers is going on. This phase will also include building up of basic infrastructure. The second phase construction has already begun and the Hiranandani Signature building has been built which hosts India International exchange. The WTC is under construction apart from a couple of buildings as part of the SEZ. The road connectivity to and in GIFT City has increased with the construction of new roads. The third phase's planned period for construction and commencement of the fully built city is 2020-2023. The fourth phase, termed "The Enpeoplement", fills the planned city with humans to experience commerce and labour.

Consultants

News

According to The Hindu Business line, Global banking major Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited has received an in-principle approval from the GIFT SEZ Authority to set up an IFSC Banking Unit at GIFT- International Financial Services Centre.
In November 2018, The Wire reported that Gujarat State govt. of Gujarat will buy out the 50% stake of beleaguered Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services in the GIFT City, to minimize delays to the project. In June, 2020, IL&FS concluded sale of its stake in GIFT-City for 32 crore equity value to the state government.
On 20 January, 2020, The Economic Times reported that GIFT is set to begin trading in rupee-dollar in futures market.
On 6 January, 2020, Accor opens the first international hotel in GIFT City.
On 5 December, 2019, Business Standard reported that Bank of America opens Global Business Services Center at GIFT-IFSC
On 15 December 2011, The Economic Times reported that city officials in GIFT are inviting companies from Singapore who wish to expand but cannot do so due to a lack of land in Singapore to open their businesses in GIFT. Among the investments being encouraged are investments from banks, private equity companies, insurance companies and asset management companies.
On 26 December 2011, The Times of India reported that China's technology giant Huawei is likely to provide technology to GIFT. According to Eric Yu, president, enterprise business, Huawei India, this technology includes networking solutions and setting up of data centres and surveillance as well as other opportunities.
On 2 October 2014, NetIndian reported that a new World Trade Center would be set up in GIFT City as per an agreement between World Trade Center India Services Council and Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Ltd. It would be completed within 4 years.
According to the news report from The Times of India on 18 October 2014. The Bangalore-based Brigade Group will invest Rs.500 crore over the next few years to develop of built up area with future option of investing another Rs. 600 crore to develop.
BSE Broker's Forum would invest 120 crore to build a commercial tower to set up back office operations to lower their costs and enjoy modern facilities. They have been allocated to develop the commercial tower. With the likelihood of setting up an exchange office.
According to Business Standard OPS Fund Services, a subsidiary of OPS Global, Singapore, which is a strategic partner of Basiz Fund Services, received the license to set up shop in International Financial Service Centre at Gujarat International Fin-Tec City.