Gammon India agrees for development

Bhopal, Apr 18: Gammon India would undertake development work of 'Central Business District Project' of South TT Nagar, Bhopal. An agreement to this effect was signed here on Thursday by the Commissioner of MP Housing Board RK Swai, Collector Bhopal RK Mathur and Director of Gammon India, Virag Gupta.

Under the project, 15 acre area in South TT Nagar would be developed as commercial complex which would have retail office space, multiplex, hotel and other commercial activities apart from construction for residential purposes. The project is estimated to cost Rs 850 crore. International-level facilities would be available at Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal after completion of this project. Gammon India was selected for this project because of its highest bid amounting to Rs 338 crore.

The present state government took effective steps for the implementation of this long-pending project. It was included in the priority list of the Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan. A high-powered committee headed by the Chief Secretary was constituted for adopting transparent process in this connection. Housing Board was nominated as the nodal agency for implementation. The decision to assign this project's work to Gammon India was taken at the state cabinet's meeting held in March 2008. This would be a model redensification project and prove to be a role model for other projects.

Director of Gammon India, Gupta informed that Gammon has the experience of working on such types of projects and first of such projects at Gateway of India had been a success. On similar lines efforts would be undertaken to develop Gateway of Bhopal and Central Business District, Bhopal would be developed in such a way it would cater to city's needs including retail, entertainment, hospitality etc with high quality on international standards. Chief Operative Officer of India Infrastructure Incentive and state government's advisor for the project, Suresh Kumar, while underling importance of this project said that this project would usher in a new era of public-private partnership in urban development. This is a commendable step towards promoting private investment in the sector of development. The state government had also expressed similar hope at Global Investors Summit recently.