Ahmedabad has bigger dreams and aspirations to be a megacity and wants to be a force to reckon with. Does it have the necessary credentials to be a megacity? Let us find out what is in store.

Cities have been flourishing since the dawn of civilization. A city’s image is shaped by its residents. Ahmedabad, which happens to be Gujarat’s largest city and one of the megacities of India, is in the urgent need for a makeover. Ahmedabad deserves the megacity status and is destined to become one of the megacities of this country. However, does Ahmedabad have what it takes to be called a megacity?

Ahmedabad has been traditionally a textile center of excellence for many decades. Not long ago it used to be called the Manchester of India due to the presence of numerous textile mills. However, with the passage of time, the mills, which used to give livelihood to hundreds of workers, have gone bust giving rise number of unemployed workers. It had a profound effect on the city’s mill workers.

As a result, most of the unemployed mill workers had no option in sight. Hence, most of them took to rickshaw driving to earn their livelihood. After the demise of the textile industry, the vacuum was soon filled up by the chemical, pharma, engineering, and plastic industries with factories set up at the city outskirts. Since then the city has come a long way. Since fewer textile mills exist today compared to several hundred half a century ago, they no longer serve the needs of those who need them the most.

The city has seen the gradual transformation on all fronts since mid-2000. Let us take Entertainment first. The city’s Entertainment scenario looks bright and dynamic. Recently, mall culture has gripped the city with several malls being opened and many more in the pipeline. For moviegoers, the city has seen a sudden increase in multiplexes with multiple screens to entertain the film, crazy people.

Apart from this, several eating joints have opened their outlets in important places in the city. The world’s largest fast-food giant ‘McDonald’s’ has already made its presence felt long ago. With the opening of Reliance retail’s fresh food stores, the face of retail in Ahmedabad has changed forever with people thronging these malls like never before.

On the infrastructure front, the progress has been rather slow as far as roads and bridges are concerned. The city’s infrastructure never looked good until now, but with several projects under construction and several others in the pipeline, the city’s future looks bright and vibrant. However, there has been some good news for the city airport as it is going to be expanded with a new international terminal in place and the proposed extension of the runway to receive wide-bodied jets like the A380, all within 30 acres of land sanctioned for constructing multiplexes, malls, and a five-star hotel, apart from motels.

In order to compete with other megacities around the world, and to give its residents an easy ride within the corporation limits, the AMC has decided to implement the ambitious BRTS project by 2010. To increase the tourist inflow to the state, the government has decided to implement the retail centered tourism project in Ahmedabad Surat and Vadodara.

Ahmedabad has to its credit some good hospitals like Krishna Heart Institute, Apollo, SAL, and Sterling hospital apart from the established VS Hospital and the Civil Hospital.

In order to be a medical hub of Gujarat in general and of India in particular, the government has to introduce a medical policy on the lines of IT policy in order to attract reputed hospital groups to enable them to set up multi-specialty hospitals for different kinds of patients from different backgrounds.

As far as IT sector is concerned, the state’s IT policy envisages a bright future for its IT industry by attracting top-notch IT companies to set up shop in the state. Despite tall claims by the state government, the state has not attracted any Indian IT bigwigs, let alone foreign players in this field. Ahmedabad along with other cities in Gujarat has a lot of catching up to do with other metros, which are miles ahead in attracting investments. So far, only NRG’s have invested in the start-up Ventures and that too in BPOs and call centres’.

There’s, of course, a bright future for IT in Gujarat in general and Ahmedabad in particular since it has talented and cheap labour, less attrition rate, and lower real estate prices which are absolutely indispensable for an IT company to start operations in the city.

Another ambitious project envisaged by the state government is the Gujarat international finance city at shahpur village between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. This project will see a Shanghai-based architect implementing the project on over 500 acres of land with total investments of Rs 30000 crore. Once completed, it will give Mumbai a run for its money and place Gujarat as the leading financial center of the country.

SG highway was once a deserted patch of land with no building in sight, but with the expansion of the city limits, it has now been transformed into a busy stretch of highway extending up to Gandhinagar in the north and Sarkhej in the south. Several companies have started operating from this stretch of highway just to avoid the excess cost of setting office on CG Road and Ashram road. This part of Ahmedabad is dotted with glass buildings of various shapes and sizes. A sudden transformation like this one is a welcome sign for the residents of this city.

In the hospitality sector, few global brands have opened shops due to an increase in the inflow of foreign and business travellers. One of them is the five-star hotel ‘Pride’ off SG highway and the other one is the hotel Le Meridian. Nevertheless, considering the activity-taking place in other cities in the hospitality sector, the city lags behind miserably. In the education sector, the state has seen some good institutes coming up.

Notwithstanding the presence of biggies like IIMs, NID, MICA and CEPT, several private institutions have penetrated the education market including management schools. To be precise, the education scenario in the state looks better and bright than ever before.

Keeping all these developments in mind, we should agree that all these developments have taken place right in front of people’s eyes and there is no denying that it will continue to develop that way. The path to the megacity status is fraught with challenges, but keeping in mind the entrepreneurial nature of the citizens of Ahmedabad, the city is enthusiastic and pragmatic in its approach. It is gearing up to take up the challenge and truly acquire the status of a megacity.

However, keeping the above factors in mind, the most vital point is the city’s infrastructure, which is short of investment particularly in roads and flyovers, and there is a lack of decent work ethics. There has to be a coordinated effort in developing Ahmedabad into a megacity. With the government’s initiative, AMC should prepare an action plan for sustained development and continuous growth of the city to attain the megacity status.