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.
