Mukesh Ambani to set up corporate city

180-acre HQ to have forest, lake, malls.

Six months after he agreed to vacate the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City for younger brother Anil, Mukesh Ambani is drawing up plans to set up an even bigger complex "" the Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City "" complete with a lake and a forest reserve in Navi Mumbai.

Spread over 180 acres, the Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City will be about 40 acres bigger than the Dhirubhai Knowledge City. At present, the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City is the headquarters of Reliance Industries.

But as part of the June 2005 settlement between the two brothers, Mukesh Ambani will have to shift out of the complex in three years.

Sources close to the development said the Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City would be built in two phases.

In the first phase, Reliance Industries will build two towers for its national headquarters and petroleum headquarters. In the second phase, the company will set up retail malls.

Nita Ambani, president of the Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation and Mukesh Ambani's wife, is believed to be taking a keen interest in the development of the complex.

When contacted, a Reliance Industries spokesperson declined to comment. The land earmarked for the Dhirubhai Ambani Corporate City belongs to National Organic Chemical Industries, which Reliance Industries had acquired some years ago.

Next to it, at Rabale, is the headquarters of another Mukesh Ambani venture, Reliance Life Sciences.

With 14 buildings spread over 2.2 million sq ft of office space, the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City can accommodate 10,000 people.

The nerve-centre of this complex is a spectacular 110,000 sq ft national network operations centre which controls the entire network of Reliance Infocomm, covering 60,000 km of optic fibre. The complex has a lake and a temple.

New venture
The complex will be built in two phases

Phase-I
Two towers for RIL's national headquarters and petroleum headquarters to be built

Phase-II
Retail malls to come up