Infrastructure

Gujarat was the first state in the country to enact the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Act. This was done to boost investments in infrastructural projects. The Act provided a framework to the private players to participate in the construction, finance and maintenance of the infrastructure projects. The Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board set up in 1995 under this Act facilitates the flow of funds from private sector into the infrastructure sector and ensures coordination among various agencies. Gujarat was one of the first states to set up industrial parks in India and is now in the process of upgrading the infrastructure support for these parks. The state is now focused on setting up industry specific parks which can offer specialized services.

The productivity of labour is quite high in Gujarat and the state also has the highest proportion of the state's populace engaged in running owned businesses. The state's literacy rate stands at 69.1 per cent, which is higher than the national average of 65.38 per cent. Gujarat is home to India's leading business school, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and other important institutions such as National Institute of Design (NID), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI). The state also has 25 engineering colleges, 26 management institutions and 300 technical institutes.

The State Government plans to establish a shipbuilding university in the district of Kutch, first of its kind in the country in the district of Kutch. Further, the industrial development in the state provides vast potential for setting new educational institutes in areas of marine engineering, port management, gems and jewellery design, fishery and fish processing, urban planning, disaster management and biotechnology.

Key Points

• The number of enrollments at the primary school level between 2003 and 2007 has come to a total of 9,44,432.
• The government has set up approximately 4,357 new primary schools (2003-2007)
• To meet the needs of the newly created primary schools, around 36,583 teachers have been appointed.
• Kanya Kelavani state-wide girl child education campaign has been launched to increase enrollment ratio and decrease drop out rates.
• There has been a phenomenal rise in the number of enrollments from 75 to 97 percent. The best thing lies in the fact that there has been a sharp rise in the enrollment ratio of girls to boys from 845 (2003-2004) to 866 (2006-2007).
• Vidya Laxmi Yojana has been undertaken to achieve 100 per cent enrollment and retention of girls at the primary school level.
• Around 6,99,000 girls have been given Vidya Laxmi Bond in last five years

The state currently has 13 medical colleges, 1,072 Primary Health centres (PHC), 7,274 Sub centres, 273 Community Health centres (CHC) and 85 mobile health care units. In the area of health care delivery services, public private partnerships are taking place. Chiranjeevi Scheme has been introduced by the government in the wake of reducing the rate of maternal and infant mortality. As per the scheme, the government and private sector specialists will collaborate and jointly work towards providing safe child delivery services. The scheme has been especially implemented for socially economic weaker sections.

Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR)	389 (2005)	172 (Aug 2007)
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)	64 (2005)	54 (Aug 2007)
No. of private specialists enrolled	801 (till August 2007)
No. of deliveries by private specialists	95,066 (till August 2007)
Lives saved under Chiranjeevi Scheme	548 mothers and 3 443 new borns

The state has made lot of advancements as far as the Telecom infrastructure is concerned.

Key Points

• Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN) is the world’s second largest IP-based WAN connecting over 2,800 government offices.
• Each of the district headquarters has been provided with the back-up support of transportable V-SAT terminals.
• Secretariat Integrated Communication Network (SICN) has more than 7,500 voice connections.
• Now the redressal of grievances of citizens can be done over the Internet itself through State Wide Grievance Attention on public grievances by application of Technology (SWAGAT).
• Integrated Work flow and Document Management System (IWDMS) has helped in streamlining the process of documentation in the government office.

Gujarat has a 1,600 km indented coastline and 42 functional airports, which handle over 80 per cent of port traffic in the country. Gujarat was the first state to announce a separate Port Policy, which integrates the development of ports with industrial development, power generation and infrastructure development. It was also the first state to privatise the construction of ports in the country.

Gujarat's minor ports handle 20 per cent of the total cargo of the country. The Kandla port in Gujarat has emerged as the largest cargo-handling port. In 2007-08, it handled the traffic of 64.89 million tonnes (mt). State has six direct berthing commercial ports, 14 direct berthing captive port terminals, 11 lighterage cargo ports.

Other ports in the state, the Gujarat Pipavav Port at Pipavav (Saurashtra) and the recently commissioned Gujarat Adani Port at Mundra (Kutch) were the country's first greenfield ports to be developed on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis. Mundra is a state-of-the-art port that facilitates berthing of large vessels while Dahej in Gujarat is the country's only chemical handling port. It is estimated that by 2015, Gujarat's ports will handle 39 per cent of the country's total cargo.

Gujarat also has a wide road network spanning across 74,000 km. It is also well connected by rail with 5,310 km of rail lines.

Though Gujarat is self sufficient in its needs for domestic and commercial water consumption, it has initiated plans for the maximum development and utilisation of water resources in the state.

The Sardar Sarovar project will provide assured irrigation to 1.8 million hectares in Gujarat with water for domestic and industrial use in about 8,215 villages and 135 townships.

The state has undertaken extensive canal construction to supply water to the arid regions of Kutch. Also underway is Kalpasar, a multipurpose project that aims to build a dam across the Gulf of Khambhat with a tidal reservoir of 872 sq km. According to the new port Policy, the state is envisaging the development of 10 greenfield sites.

Power is key to industry and Gujarat has a good record of consistent power supply for commercial use. According to the data obtained in the fiscal year 2007-08, the state has the potential capacity to produce power with the capacity of 17,403 MW(including captive power generation capacity)The state has planned several initiatives to build adequate capacity in generation, transmission and distribution of power supply. These include rationalising the power tariff structure, encouraging power generation from non-conventional sources, focusing on energy conservation and improving the quality of services to consumers. It is the only state in India with a 2,200 Km. integrated gas grid operated on an open access , common carrier principle. Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) has approximately 42 oil and gas fields across India.

The credit for exploring the largest gas reserve in India at Krishna-Godavari Basin with an estimated reserve of 20 TCF goes to GSPC. As the largest producer of natural gas in India, Gujarat intends to set up an extensive state-wide gas grid to augment its existing power capacity. The grid will use gas supplied by the recently commissioned LNG terminals at Dahej. In fact, by 2010, 20 per cent of the country's energy needs will be met by natural gas and Gujarat would play a crucial role in fulfilling these requirements.

Gujarat has an extensive road network of 74,111 Km. which includes the national highways (2,781 Km.), state highways (18,738 Km.) and expressways (93 Km.) and the target of Gujarat is to increase the network and take it to 1,14,866 Km.38.2 per cent of total expressways and national highways in the state are multi-lane; 87.9 per cent of total roads are asphalt-surfaced. Over 90 percent of rural connectivity in Gujarat is through its weather roads, which is believed to be the highest in India. The railway network is also quite vast and is somewhere around 5,188 Km. As per the new initiative of Pragatipath Yojana taken up in 2005 by the government of Gujarat, the state envisages the development of nine high speed corridors and widening of highways to connect tribal, coastal, industrial and rural areas with mainstream areas.

To cope with the shortage and uneven supply of water throughout the state, it is proposed to develop water grid. The government is planning to cover 75 per cent population through the grid by 2010. as a part of water conservation schemes, it has been proposed to set up 87,179 check dams (Small weir constructed across rivulet having minimum discharge of 1 cusec after monsoon), 35,379 bori bandhs (Dams made of sand bags), 1,30,262 khet talavadi (Farm ponds) and 5,551 deepened ponds. In regard to this, the government passed the Gujarat Water Users’ Participatory Irrigation Management Bill in the year 2007 authorizing the farmers to constitute Water Users’ Associations (WUA) for management of canals handed over, after rehabilitation by the Government.

Conventional fuel used in buses and auto rickshaws has been replaced by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). 90 CNG stations have already been established and at present nearly 535 CNG buses and 31,513 CNG auto rickshaws are operational. In Ahmadabad, it has been made a mandatory rule to run only CNG based auto rickshaws.

Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) has been jointly implemented by the government, Development Board (GIDB), Ahmadabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and Ahmadabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). The total network of BRTS is 380 Km out of which 20 percent work was completed by August 2007 and it is envisaged that the project will complete by the year 2010.

The government of Gujarat has taken up the initiative to develop the area around Sabarmati and Tapi rivers to improve the existing infrastructure and give a new touch to the city. Suitable measures have been taken up for ensuring energy efficiency and solid waste management. Gujarat is looking forward to develop new commercial, residential and recreational facilities. Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation has been honoured with Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design for development along the Sabarmati River.

Gujarat has 182 industrial estates established by Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation. Industrial estates are set up on non-agricultural land after assessment of industrial viability The State has a software technology park at Gandhinagar. GIDC plans to set up an apparel park in Surat. Additionally, GIDC has developed an industrial park in Dahej, which includes a petrochemical complex with facilities like a private airstrip, effluent collection and disposal, a liquid chemical port and railway lines.

To encourage investment in the state, Gujarat also gives autonomy and funds to industrial estates to implement maintenance and modernisation measures. It is also encouraging organisations to set up units in these zones by giving them tax holidays and subsidies like exemption from stamp duty and registration fees.

The manufacturing industry of Gujarat has a good support system with 312,000 small and 2,200 medium units. Overall, it has 83 product clusters out of which many are successful such as Ceramics cluster (Morbi), Brass parts cluster (Jamnagar), Fish Processing Veraval) Power Looms Ahmadabad). The state government launched the Cluster Development Scheme for furthering the growth of product clusters.

The State has set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) at Kandla and Surat. It has 55 approved SEZs (44 sector specific and 11 multi-product) as on September 2008). its current status of SEZ is that it has 10 functional and 15 notified special economic zones out of which 22 have got formal approval while 8 have been in principle approved in principle. It is the leading SEZ state with highest geographical area spanning over of over 15,000 hectares. Chief upcoming SEZs are Reliance SEZ (chemicals and petrochemicals), Pharmez (pharmaceuticals) and Essar Hazira SEZ (engineering). Gujarat is the maiden state to come up with a policy related to SEZs which includes flexible labour laws and exit options for investors.

Types of SEZ	Number
Chemicals	2
Power	2
Gems and jewellery	1
Ceramics and glass	1
Biotechnology	1
Handicraft	1
Multi service	3

The government of Gujarat has identified Ahmadabad-Dholera Investment Region and Vadodara-Ankleshwar Industrial Area to develop as key investment regions in Phase I. Gujarat’s share of the Delhi-Mumbai Dedicated Freight Corridor of 1,483 Km. is 38 per cent. Its other key projects include Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) at Dahej and Special Investment Region (SIR) at Dholera. Gujarat International Finance-Tec City (GIFT), a collaboration between GUDC* and IL&FS**,is being developed as Central Finance and Business District.

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