By Kaushal Punatar Cell: +91 9867655802 kaushalpunatar@gmail.com

Signaling the commencement of development work at one of India’s most anticipated development projects the Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra, Shri Ashok Chavan today performed the formal ground-breaking ceremony of the Gulf Finance House (GFH) promoted US$ 10 billion (approximately INR 45,500 crore) GFH Economic Development Zone (GFH EDZ). Spread over an area in excess of 1700 acres of prime land outside Mumbai, the project will be India’s largest, FDI-driven integrated development projects. It will also boast of being one of the most vibrant and technologically advanced projects in the country.

The vision behind the GFH EDZ is to significantly contribute to the growing economy and international reputation of Mumbai by developing a critical mass of world class business and related social infrastructure close to Mumbai’s new international airport. The project, which will be amongst the most technologically advanced developments in the country, features cutting-edge design excellence, while incorporating high levels of sustainability and maintaining strong connections to the existing Reserve Forest in the area. It also aims at decongesting the city of Mumbai, the country’s financial and commercial capital. On completion this state-of-art project which comprises of three distinct components, namely Energy City, IT & Telecom City and Entertainment City, will house approximately 1,40,000 residents and will generate direct employment for over 250,000 people and indirect employment for as many as 750,000 people.

In addition to the symbolic ground-breaking, the Honourable Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra, His Excellency Shri Ashok Chavan, also unveiled the scaled model of the project components at a high-profile ceremony in Mumbai that was also attended by senior government officials, Dr. Esam Janahi, Chairman, Gulf Finance House, Investors, the media and other senior dignitaries.

Addressing the audience at this event organized to mark this historic occasion, His Excellency Shri. Ashok Chavan, said: “We welcome this initiative by Gulf Finance House and are confident that it will help in decongesting Mumbai, apart from significantly contributing to large scale job creation and the development of world-class infrastructure. GFH Economic Development Zone vindicates Mumbai and the State of Maharashtra’s position as a leading global business hub and the most attractive investment destination in the country.”

Established on 16 October 1999 in the Kingdom of Bahrain, GFH is one of the most successful and innovative Islamic investment banks in the Middle East. GFH specializes in the identification and development of initiatives, especially in the emerging economies of the GCC, Asia and North Africa that unlock opportunity and accelerate economic growth. Under its development infrastructure business and with a focus on the conception and delivery of high value economic infrastructure projects currently valued at over US $30 billion, GFH’s flagship initiatives include the launch of Energy Cities in Qatar, Libya and Kazakhstan, Financial Harbours in Bahrain and Tunisia, and the largest GFH concept to date, the GFH Economic Development Zone in Mumbai, amongst others.

Thanking the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his team for their continued support to GFH and its initiatives in the State, Mr. Esam Janahi, Chairman, GFH said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government of Maharashtra, especially Shri Ashok Chavan for his continued support for this project, first in his capacity as the Industries Minister and now as the Honourable Chief Minister of the state.

“I would also like to thank our partners, Valuable Group and DAR Capital Group for assisting us in bringing to fruition what most definitely is one of the largest and most ambitious projects undertaken by GFH till date. We are confident that with the continued support of the Government of Maharashtra, we will be able to complete Phase I of the project which comprises Infrastructure & development works planned to be completed within the next 30 months,” added Mr Janahi.

GFH EDZ has successfully created a reputation in the market, well demonstrated by the fact that when the project was first announced as ‘Energy City India’ in October 2006, through a ‘Working Together Agreement’ with the Government of Maharashtra, the project area of the land was only 300 acres. In December 2007 the project scope was enhanced to 1600 acres and GFH signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Maharashtra for the development of among the country’s first and one of the largest ‘Integrated Economic Development Zones’. Today, at the time of commencement of work and unveiling of the project model the project size has further been enhanced to approximately 1700 acres.

Elaborating on the choice of Maharashtra for the location of the project, Mr. Janahi said: “As has been always indicated by me India and Maharashtra are ideal investment destinations, a fact well validated by the limited impact of the global financial crisis. While the opportunities that India offers within the infrastructure and allied sectors, such as energy, software and telecommunications are tremendous, the state’s pro-investor and pro-industry policies coupled with its strategic position within key business and industry sectors in the country, has and will continue to make Maharashtra the largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.”

In conclusion and commenting on the project components, Mr Janahi, added: “Spread over approximately 480 acres Entertainment City will be the first of the three components of GFH MEDZ to go live. It is planned as a special attraction of entertainment and commercial related uses, including a mix of hospitality, leisure and recreational facilities, with complementary commercial and residential components, in a highly visible and accessible location. The other two key components of the project being 760 acres (approx) Energy City India which is the second in a series of energy focused business clusters planned across the Middle East and Asia, the first being Energy City Qatar and the latest being Energy City China and the 470 acre IT/Telecom component, known as MITTIC, features a centralized IT Office Park that acts as a business core catering to the IT/Telecom industries.”

In addition to working with DAR Capital Group and The Valuable Group, GFH has also enrolled the services of a host of leading global consultants for this landmark and very ambitious project. Key amongst them are HOK Canada for Master Planning, Halcrow UK for Electricity Requirements, Frischmann Prabhu for Detailed Project Design, SENES Canada as Environment Consultants, Monarch Surveyors for detailed survey of the Project Area, Jones Lang Lasalle Meghraj  for the Techno Econimic Feasibility Study and CBRE for the overall Project Feasibility.