GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City): Complete Overview

What GIFT City Is

Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, also called GIFT City, is a central business district under construction in the Gandhinagar district as a suburb city of the Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad Metropolitan Region, and is India's first operational greenfield smart city and international financial services centre. The city sits on the banks of the Sabarmati River, around 12 km from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, and is designed so residents can walk to work, combining commercial, financial and residential complexes.

The total area for the original development of GIFT is 359 hectares (886 acres), of which the special economic zone (SEZ) constitutes 106 hectares (261 acres); the project area is therefore split between the SEZ area and the non-SEZ area, also known as the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA). GIFT City is divided into two functional zones — the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA), meant for domestic companies operating under Indian law, and the SEZ/IFSC zone for internationally-oriented financial services.

Who Is Building It

The Government of Gujarat formed "Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited" (GIFTCL) to develop and implement GIFT City through its venture Gujarat Urban Development Company Limited (GUDCL). The GIFT City project is promoted by the Government of Gujarat through its undertaking GUDC for developing a Global Financial Hub in the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar region, with GUDC as sole owner of GIFTCL. GIFTCL was incorporated in June 2007 as a 50:50 joint venture between Gujarat Urban Development Co. Ltd (GUDC) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), with a board split evenly between government and IL&FS nominees plus independent directors.

For implementation of the SEZ specifically, GIFT Company Limited set up a wholly owned subsidiary, GIFT SEZ Ltd, as the designated SEZ developer. Leadership has continued to evolve with the project's expansion — in July 2025, Sanjay Kaul was appointed as the new managing director and Group CEO.

Official Notified Area, Villages and Districts

GIFT City was originally notified for an area of 1,065 acres, for which a statutory Development Plan was prepared in 2011, with part of the area designated as an SEZ; of the total 1,065 acres, 741 acres are under GIFT City Company Ltd and the rest is private land. The Central Government's SEZ notification of 18 August 2011 formally notified 105.4386 hectares (261 acres) at villages Phirozpur (Pirojpur) and Ratanpur, Taluka and District Gandhinagar, Gujarat, for development as a sector-specific multi-services Special Economic Zone.

In 2023 GIFT City began a major expansion, incorporating four villages in Gandhinagar district and adding approximately 2,300 acres — the first major expansion since inception in 2007, taking the project area to more than three times its earlier size, from 1,065 acres to roughly 3,365 acres. The expansion covers the villages of Shahpur, Ratanpur, Lavarpur and Pirojpur, with a combined estimated population of 25,000; officials stated villagers would not be relocated, and the villages would simply become part of the expanded GIFT City.

A subsequent draft development plan for the expansion covers approximately 2,441 acres (998 hectares) of additional land across Shahpur, Ratanpur, Lavarpur, Pirojpur and Valad villages of Gandhinagar district, taking the overall footprint to almost 3,430 acres (1,392 hectares), intended to eventually house over one million people. Building heights in the expansion area are capped much lower than the core — a maximum of eight floors or 25 metres, versus structures up to 120 metres in the original GIFT City. Because of the high cost of land acquisition for this expansion, the state government handed development of the four earmarked villages to the Gandhinagar Urban Development Authority (GUDA).

Why GIFT City Exists

The idea for GIFT City was conceived at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit 2007 by Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat. The purpose of the large-scale project is to increase foreign investment in India by establishing a technology-backed business district capable of competing with other global IFSCs. GIFT City is intended to help bring back a significant part of Indian financial services activity currently conducted in other jurisdictions, reducing brain drain and supporting India's push toward a larger economy.

The Government of India approved GIFT City as a multi-services SEZ and notified it as India's first IFSC, with a single unified regulator — IFSCA — combining powers previously split across RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA for IFSC operations.

Current Status (as of mid-2026)

According to GIFT City's own figures, the district has more than 29 million sq ft allotted, more than 1,000 entities operational, over 20,000 jobs generated, and over USD 100 billion in total banking asset size as of September 2025. Independent trackers give slightly different snapshots: as of June 2025, Wikipedia records 939 registered entities, including 47 insurance firms and 272 funds, with more than 100 foreign companies, half of which joined in the preceding year.

As of February 2026, one industry report put the count at over 1,150 IFSCA-registered entities, with banking sector assets growing from $14 billion in 2020 to $106.7 billion, supported by 37 operational domestic and foreign banks including JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and HSBC. Capital-market activity is also scaling: 349 funds have reportedly launched with a targeted corpus of $80 billion, monthly exchange turnover has crossed $100 billion, and over 200 bonds worth roughly $70.9 billion are listed. Aircraft and ship leasing has grown into a significant vertical, with 35 aircraft-leasing firms managing 372 aviation assets and 36 ship-leasing entities holding 34 vessels.

Given the range across sources, treat entity counts and asset figures as directional rather than exact, and always check the latest IFSCA and GIFT City disclosures for precise numbers.

Notable operational milestones include JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group opening offices in 2022, alongside the launch of Singapore Exchange's Nifty futures trading and India's first international bullion exchange. In January 2025, Technip Energies began operations in the Fintechone tower, and in December 2025 IDFC FIRST Bank opened an IFSC banking unit. GIFT City is also emerging as a hub for foreign university campuses, with two Australian universities opening their first campuses on 7 November 2023.

Headline Connectivity

The Ahmedabad Metro, operated by GMRC, now spans 67.56 km across four lines — Blue, Red, Yellow and Violet — connecting Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and GIFT City, with the Yellow Line fully open since 11 January 2026, enabling a ride from central Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar's Mahatma Mandir without changing modes. The metro already connects Motera Stadium, Gandhinagar and GIFT City, with a travel time of roughly 12–15 minutes from Motera to GIFT City.

Further extensions are in the pipeline but not yet built: tender documents describe a proposed 6.032 km elevated Airport Line (Phase 2A) and a 3.33 km GIFT City extension line with three stations (Phase 2B) as part of Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase 2. In April 2026, GMRC invited bids for the Phase 2B extension of the Violet Line from GIFT City to Shahpur Circle — a 3.33 km elevated corridor with stations at GIFT City House, Gujarat Biotechnology University and Shahpur. Under Phase 2A, the airport spur was estimated at ₹2,169.04 crore, with the Union Cabinet approving the plan in June 2026. As of mid-2026, GMRC has floated a General Engineering Consultant tender covering the airport spur, the GIFT City–Shahpur extension and a further Blue Line extension, but all three remain in design and planning, with construction start dates not yet confirmed.

By road, GIFT City is roughly 20–25 minutes from Ahmedabad Airport, and other sources cite distances of around 12 km (7.5 mi) from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. Longer-range rail links are still aspirational: the Mumbai–Ahmedabad bullet train corridor is expected to have a station at Gandhinagar, benefiting GIFT City commuters, though completion timelines for that high-speed rail project are separate from GIFT City's own build-out.

What Happens Next

Three tracks of work are running in parallel. First, the physical expansion: urban planner Bimal Patel's firm, HCP Design, Planning and Management, has been chosen to draw up the master plan for the roughly 3,365-acre expanded city, adjusting the original master plan to fold in the newly added village land. Second, transit build-out: the metro extensions into GIFT City and to the airport are moving from design consultancy into detailed engineering, with SYSTRA awarded the Detailed Design Consultancy contract for Ahmedabad Metro Phase 2 in 2026, building on its earlier Phase 2 design work for GMRCL — but construction contracts and firm completion dates have not yet been announced for the GIFT City and airport spurs.

Third, regulatory and financial deepening: a February 2026 amendment to the SEZ Rules, issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, empowers the IFSCA Administrator to issue a standardised Letter of Approval (Form GA) for units setting up in the GIFT City IFSC. From April 2026, mutual funds and ETFs have been permitted to relocate to GIFT City from offshore jurisdictions without incurring capital gains tax, a change expected to draw funds currently based in Singapore or Mauritius. Total incremental employment potential across the ecosystem is projected to exceed 136,000 jobs by 2030 as commercial and residential infrastructure expands, though this is a forward projection from industry commentary rather than a government target, and actual delivery will depend on how quickly office space, housing and transit in the expanded area come online.