For Vibrant Gujarat ’11 , Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s MoU target Rs20K cr

Officials of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) are on toes. They want to ensure that the city's realtors sign MoUs worth Rs20,000 crore at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2011.

The civic body wants the projects to be implemented within its limits.

The hustle bustle at AMC's office these days to convince leading business houses to make huge investments in Ahmedabad indicates that the officials are trying hard to meet the target given by the state government.

The AMC estate department has already registered builders' interest in signing MoUs to launch different schemes — townships, residential and commercial buildings — worth
Rs14,000 crore.

The AMC has also managed to convince one of its contractors for the Sabarmati Riverfront project to sign an MoU worth Rs35crore for a floating restaurant and another MoU worth Rs5 crore for duck tour bus.

There are also two UK-based companies which have shown interest in signing two MoUs worth Rs100 crore and Rs50 crore for solid waste management projects.

"We have been organising meetings with top builders in the city. In a meeting held last week, some builders showed interest and committed investment worth Rs14,000 crore. Some of the leading builders who have made proposals worth Rs1,000 crore each are Bakeri, Ganesh Housing and Dharmadev," said a senior AMC official.

AMC apart, another urban body — Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) — has also been given a target. The urban development department of the state government has entrusted on AUDA the responsibility of signing MoUs worth Rs50,000 crore.

"We have almost achieved the target set for us and will soon upload on the website the details of the proposals received by us. The department will scrutinise the proposals and call the realtors for signing MoUs," said an AUDA official.

While the AUDA is inching close to achieve the target, AMC officials are skeptical of achieving the target. "Last time also, there was investment worth Rs20,000 crore in the AMC limits. But at that time, major players like Godrej had signed an MoU worth                Rs5,500 crore. This time, we are finding it difficult to fetch proposals with such big investment. We have managed proposals worth Rs14,000 crore but we don't think we would be able to meet the target of Rs20,000 crore," said the AMC official.