Gandhinagar, July 12 Shanghai inspiration behind structural design of skyscrapers

With the East China Architectural Design and Research Institute (ECADI)busy giving final touches to the detailed structural designs for several skyscrapers to come up for the planned Gujarat International Finance Tec-city (GIFT) project, the work on the Rs 4,000 crore infrastructure component of the project is expected to begin by the year end.

"The laying of internal roads, underground cables and pipes, water supply, sewage, power supply system and so on will begin early this December," said a delegation member.

Recently, Gujarat Urban Development Company (GUDC) Managing Director Srinivas Katikithala went on a week-long visit to Shanghai to hold detailed discussions with a team of ECADI designers and architects on the subject. Srinivas was part of an 8-member delegation comprising consultants of the GIFT project who visited Shanghai early this week.

"During its recent visit to Gujarat, the ECADI team had presented concept designs for six skyscrapers envisaged for the ambitious GIFT project. We went to Shanghai to understand the concept designs, and after prolonged discussions with them, we endorsed the concept," said Srinivas.

"During our six-day stay in Shanghai, we also discussed this and other issues related to the master planning and development of the project with the ECADI team," said a delegation member.

A GUDC official told this paper that the ECADI team of designers will visit Gandhinagar sometime next month when detailed structural designs and other things related to the proposed highrises under the GIFT project will be finalised.

To be benchmarked as "a global finance hub", the Rs 50,000 crore GIFT project is a joint venture between the GUDC and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) — a leading Mumbai-based infrastructure consultancy firm. It is envisaged to come up on 500 acres of land along the eastern banks of the Sabarmati on the outskirts of Gandhinagar.

A senior official associated with the project said: "One of the skyscrapers envisaged on the GIFT project premises will be more than 80 storeys high, while the rest will be just above 50-storeys. More than 50 such buildings are proposed for construction under the multi-crore state-of-the-art project."

An official said the China Government-owned ECADI is a reputed company credited with the design and construction of 80 per cent of the buildings in Shanghai. The Gujarat team members also visited Seoul (South Korea) and attended a World Tall Buildings Conference there, he said. "The conference provided us a rare opportunity to interact with some leading world famous developers, designers, architects, planners and technocrats. We also get to know their views on the latest building technology trends in the world", he said. "On the sidelines of the world meet, we also had a chance to interact with the developers of the under-construction 200-storey "Burj Dubai" building — considered the tallest in the world," he added.