Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday inaugurated the debut phase of the state’s first SEZ IT Park in the city’s Tragad area.
Named Million Minds Tech City and owned by developer Ganesh Housing, the 65-acre special economic zone (SEZ) will be based on a lease model. The company is expected to make Rs 600 crore annually after seven years, after the completion of all phases.
Speaking to the media a day ago, Shekhar Patel, the managing director & CEO of Ganesh Housing Limited, said out of the total area of 65 acres, in which the integrated technology township was coming up, 10 million square feet would be dedicated to commercial development targeting Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and technology companies. While another six million square feet will be for residential development, the remaining two million square feet will house a hotel, shopping mall and service apartments.
Started by Govind Patel in 1968, Ganesh Housing is primarily a housing company and was listed on the stock market in 1994.
The first phase of the 1.3 million square-foot project is ready for occupation, Patel, who is also the CREDAI national president, said, adding that it would be completely operational in about six months. He noted that 90% of the 16-storey building had already been leased out.
While the first phase was being developed at Rs 1,100 crore, the SEZ’s overall development is projected to cost Rs 15,000 crore. Of this, the land value is Rs 4,500 crore.
When asked about the funding for construction, Patel said, “It is coming from internal accruals, and once phase-1 is leased, I can take Lease Rental Discounting (LRD) and build phase-2, so it’s a mix. We will not raise money from the capital market for this project.”
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On long-term revenue and the leasing model in the SEZ, Shekhar Patel said, “This is a fully leasing model, and none of it will be sold. Ganesh Housing expects Rs 7 crore per month from Phase 1. We are leasing it by carpet area at Rs 120 per square feet. The leasable carpet area is 6.5 lakh sq feet in Phase 1… we have already leased out 4 lakh sq feet. The total annual rental income from Phase 1 is Rs 84 crore per year.”
“A total of seven phases will be coming up in seven years, after which we expect a revenue of Rs 600 crore per year,” said Patel.
The 65-acre land parcel was designated an IT/ITES SEZ in 2008-09. When asked why the company had decided to build on it after more than a decade, Patel said, “There was an IT and financial recession in 2008-09. Ahmedabad was also not ready for IT expansion at the time. So, we did not develop it. But post-Covid, the world changed, and we saw the opportunity for GCC companies in India. So, we launched it now.”
Patel said he hoped that with Gujarat hosting the police and fire games, Commonwealth Games, and maybe even the Olympics, the government could think about liberalisation in the state’s liquor policy and expand it to SEZs after Gift City.
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Notably, the city campus of Ganesh Real Estate Management Institute was also inaugurated on Sunday. Speaking about this earlier, Patel said on Saturday, “We have started GREMI on a 100-acre campus, which will take three years to get ready. So, in the meantime, we have made a city campus at Million Minds. Academics will begin in August 2026 with a capacity for 200 students. The main campus will have a residential facility for 2,000 students.”
