Eighteen years after securing land for an IT/ITeS Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Ahmedabad, real-estate developer Ganesh Housing Limited has formally kicked off development of the long-delayed project, betting on a post-pandemic surge in demand from Global Capability Centres (GCCs).

The company on Sunday launched the ₹1,100 crore Phase-I of its “IT Park and Integrated Tech City” project in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. The first phase of the project, christened “Million Minds Tech City” comprises 13 lakh square feet of commercial development and marks the beginning of what the company plans as a seven-phase, ₹15,000 crore integrated SEZ project.

Ahmedabad-headquartered Ganesh Housing had acquired the 65-acre land parcel at Tragad in 2006 and secured SEZ approval in 2008. However, the project remained stalled for nearly two decades amid weak demand from the information technology sector and the absence of a mature office market in Ahmedabad. “We had bought this parcel of land in 2006 and we got the approval for an SEZ in 2008 and then the recession in Information Technology (IT) came in. Ahmedabad was not ready for an expansion in IT and so we could not develop this project,” said Shekhar Patel, Managing Director and CEO of Ganesh Housing, which is listed on both NSE and BSE.

Patel, who is also president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), said the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent rise of GCC investments in India changed the outlook for the project. “But post the Covid pandemic, the world changed. Opportunities for Global Capability Centres (GCCs) started coming to India and three years ago we decided to start this project,” he added.

The company said nearly 8 lakh square feet of the 13 lakh square feet developed in Phase-I has already been leased out, underlining rising interest in Ahmedabad as an emerging technology and GCC destination. Among the companies that have taken up office space are IBM, which operates one of the world’s largest enterprise technology and consulting businesses; Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest IT services exporter; Singapore-headquartered cloud consulting and AI engineering firm Searce; Germany-based digital business transformation company Valtech; and US-based accounting, tax and advisory firm Withum. Life sciences and biotech firms including Kashiv Biosciences and APSER Life Science, along with flexible workspace operator DevX, have also leased space in the project. According to Patel, average rentals in the project are around ₹120 per square foot per month.

The project has been structured under revised SEZ regulations that allow a mix of export-oriented and domestic businesses within the processing zone. “In this building we have two elevator lobbies. One lobby with a cluster of eight elevators provides service till the eighth floor, while the second lobby services from the ninth floor to the 16th floor,” Patel said. “The SEZ rules regarding IT/ITeS SEZs have changed. As per the new rules, 50 percent of the area of a building built in the commercial area of a processing zone can be leased to local companies doing any business while the remaining has to be leased to export-oriented units,” he added.

Like other SEZ projects, the development has been divided into processing and non-processing zones. While commercial office development is taking place in the processing zone, the non-processing area will house malls, hotels and residential projects. “Work on Phase-II, comprising 15 lakh square feet of additional space will soon begin,” Patel said. The launch on Sunday also marked the inauguration of Ganesh Real Estate Management Institute (GERMI) City Campus recently approved by AICTE. While GERMI will start operating from a temporary campus from this year, a 100-acre campus is being built near Thol lake, near Ahmedabad.

On Friday, shares of Ganesh Housing closed at ₹687.1 apiece, up 1.35 percent on the BSE.

Published on May 17, 2026