How Gujarat's urban push is attracting big bucks

From residential townships to solid waste management, urban development in Gujarat is set to attract big money during Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit this year.

With already close to 700 proposals pouring in, memorandums of understanding (MoU) worth over Rs 2 lakh crore are likely to be signed in the sector during the two-day event.

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According to state government sources, sectors like residential townships, hospitality, medical infrastructure, urban transport, water supply, waste water management and solid waste management will be explored the most during the event.

"Companies from within and outside Gujarat have been expressing interests of investing in projects across various verticals in urban development. Most of them revolved around residential townships, hotels, hospitals and urban transport, followed by water management and solid waste management. Other civic amenities and parking facilities are also some verticals being explored," said sources.

For instance, the likes of Doshion and Jindal Manila, the JV between Jindal Saw and Manila Water Company have evinced interest in investing in water supply and waste water management.

The companies are likely to sign MoU regarding the same during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit, said sources.

Even in online parking and multi-level parking verticals, domestic as well as international companies have made proposals for investment.

According to government sources, the total investment in urban development is likely to grow from the current amount of proposals.

It needs to be mentioned here that, under urban development, the previous Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2009 had seen a Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) MoU by Sabeer Bhatia, creator of Hotmail, for setting up a NanoCity, a sustainable hi-tech city, near Dholera.

However, government sources declined to state the status of the project.