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GIFT in Gujarat: Narendra Modi's dream project offers vital learnings for 100 smart cities ambition - The Economic Times
Eighteen kilometers off Ahmedabad airport, two tall buildings rise out of literally nowhere. The twin towers with cobalt blue glass facades are anomalies in the otherwise brown, dusty landscape. At 122 metres and 28 floors high, the towers are the tallest in Gujarat. But height isn't really their claim to fame. The towers are the first buildings to go up in Narendra Modi's dream project: the Gujarat International Financial Tec (GIFT) City.
GIFT City, in all likelihood, will be India's first 'smart city' to be built from scratch. At GIFT City, the action is happening on the ground and under it. An army of workers is sweating in the sweltering sun, pounding roads and erecting buildings for a school, a fire station and a cooling plant. Workmen are also burrowing underground, digging what will eventually be a 12-km long maze of utility tunnels, through which everything from power cables to fibre optic cables to water pipelines will be routed.
When GIFT City's cooling towers will become operational, buildings won't use air-conditioning but district cooling technology, a far more energy-efficient process that circulates chilled water through buildings to cool them. Solid waste will be sucked out from homes and offices at 90 km/hr using pipelines leading directly to a waste processing plant.
When fully functional, GIFT City will have a command centre with information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure spread across the city which will manage everyday chores like traffic movement.
The closest most Indians have been to experiencing anything like this is inside a cinema hall, for the price of the latest Hollywood sci-fi flick. But, that may change.
A Hundred Cities
In its election manifesto, the BJP had promised to build 100 hi-tech cities. The NDA government seems to be keen to fulfil that promise. "You cannot build cities overnight.
It takes 20-30 years to build a new city. Instead of just making new cities, our idea is to make our existing cities smart," Union minister for housing and urban development Venkaiah Naidu told ET a couple of days ago.
"There will be a mix. One, to convert an old city into a smart one. Two, to build new cities wherever possible," said Naidu.
For instance, seven new smart cities are being developed from scratch along the proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).
"We expect the first phase [40-50 sq km] of three smart cities — Dholera [Gujarat], Shendra-Bidkin [Maharashtra] and Global City [Haryana] — to be delivered by 2019," says Amitabh Kant, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).
Eighteen kilometers off Ahmedabad airport, two tall buildings rise out of literally nowhere. The twin towers with cobalt blue glass facades are anomalies in the otherwise brown, dusty landscape. At 122 metres and 28 floors high, the towers are the tallest in Gujarat. But height isn't really their claim to fame. The towers are the first buildings to go up in Narendra Modi's dream project: the Gujarat International Financial Tec (GIFT) City.
GIFT City, in all likelihood, will be India's first 'smart city' to be built from scratch. At GIFT City, the action is happening on the ground and under it. An army of workers is sweating in the sweltering sun, pounding roads and erecting buildings for a school, a fire station and a cooling plant. Workmen are also burrowing underground, digging what will eventually be a 12-km long maze of utility tunnels, through which everything from power cables to fibre optic cables to water pipelines will be routed.
When GIFT City's cooling towers will become operational, buildings won't use air-conditioning but district cooling technology, a far more energy-efficient process that circulates chilled water through buildings to cool them. Solid waste will be sucked out from homes and offices at 90 km/hr using pipelines leading directly to a waste processing plant.
When fully functional, GIFT City will have a command centre with information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure spread across the city which will manage everyday chores like traffic movement.
The closest most Indians have been to experiencing anything like this is inside a cinema hall, for the price of the latest Hollywood sci-fi flick. But, that may change.
A Hundred Cities
In its election manifesto, the BJP had promised to build 100 hi-tech cities. The NDA government seems to be keen to fulfil that promise. "You cannot build cities overnight.
It takes 20-30 years to build a new city. Instead of just making new cities, our idea is to make our existing cities smart," Union minister for housing and urban development Venkaiah Naidu told ET a couple of days ago.
"There will be a mix. One, to convert an old city into a smart one. Two, to build new cities wherever possible," said Naidu.
For instance, seven new smart cities are being developed from scratch along the proposed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).
"We expect the first phase [40-50 sq km] of three smart cities — Dholera [Gujarat], Shendra-Bidkin [Maharashtra] and Global City [Haryana] — to be delivered by 2019," says Amitabh Kant, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).
