GIFT City on fast track after bid for 2030 CWG

The idea to build an international financial centre on a greenfield site was conceived in 2007 by the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. After initial years of slow growth and setbacks, the government converted GIFT into a fully state-owned company.

- Soumya Chatterjee

The idea to build an international financial centre on a greenfield site was conceived in 2007 by then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

(SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT)

By 2011, the state had carved out a contiguous 3-sq-km (900acre) plot along the Sabarmati and laid down the physical foundations—wide roads, a riverfront edge and perhaps the country’s most advanced underground utility systems. The decisive shift came in 2020, when the Centre created the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA), a unified regulator for banking, insurance, funds, aircraft leasing and other offshore financial activity.

About 25 buildings are now operational and almost fully occupied, bringing roughly 27,000 people into the city every day. Another 37 towers are under construction. For now, GIFT remains primarily a workplace rather than a place where people live, but that is beginning to change. Around 930 homes have been delivered and over 7,000 are under construction.