GIFT update

The long awaited green signal for inviting private developers to the ambitious Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) at Gandhinagar has come through. GIFT will open its doors to private developers by mid-February for construction of office and residential blocks. A requisition for qualification-cum-request for proposal is now ready, said GIFT sources, and will be released shortly by the concerned authorities. The offer will be open to developers for both domestic and international players. A total of four buildings that are 122 meters high are being proposed at the site. The large chunk of land identified by GIFT is in addition to the QC1 and QC2 blocks that are being developed by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) currently. GIFT officials claimed that out of the two million square feet to be launched in the market, one million square feet will be in the SEZ area. Close to 0.5 million square feet will be launched for development in non-SEZ area, while an equal space will be launched to develop residential units in SEZ area. As of now, IL&FS is developing 7.7 million square feet. Two contractors L&T India and ANC Dubai are being roped in for the construction. Each of the high-rise buildings will have 29 floors. An international school, hospital and a hotel and an exhibition center are already under construction. A special international market zone spread over two million square feet is being developed in GIFT.