Soaring Amdavadi Ambition Knows No Bounds And Mumbai’s Supremacy In The Western Region Is Under Serious Threat

Team TOI

There has always been an undercurrent of rivalry between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Much before Ahmedabad was in stiff competition with Mumbai in the area of textiles and came to be known as the ‘Manchester of the East’. The sobriquet has long lost its relevance because Ahmedabad, after the collapse of the textile mills, came to be perched at the head of what is know Gujarat’s ‘Golden Corridor’, a hub for chemical and petro-chemical industry.

It also gave Mumbai a run for its money as far as the pharma industry was concerned, with the Torrents and Cadilas headquartered here.

Nevertheless, Mumbai was Mumbai, even if the Sensex was largely in control of the Gujaratis. And so was the case with the port city’s diamond trade, a business thriving largely on gems polished in Ahmedabad and Surat. But today, Ahmedabad need not look up to Mumbai. With a ring of ports coming in and around Ahmedabad, backed up with massive SEZs for engineering goods, gems and jewellery, textile and apparel parks, the city is poised for a giant leap forward.

Branded well as the main hinterland city around a necklace of ports, it is also a crucial location on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) for goods manufactured in the north not needing to go all the way to Mumbai for shipment. If Ahmedabad was to get a world-class international airport today, all the advantages that Mumbai has over its smaller cousin would be lost. Unlike land-locked Mumbai, which inhibits horizontal growth, there is ample availability of still-cheap land around Ahmedabad where large projects are coming up.

It is not surprising that Mumbai-based realty giants like Rahejas and Hiranandanis are today rushing to Ahmedabad to corner as much land as possible.

“For the last 15-20 years, a fair proportion of business generated in Mumbai originates from Ahmedabad, like subscribing to public issues. With lower manpower and infrastructure costs and a better law and order situation Ahmdabad can make a better financial centre than Mumbai,” feels former IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia.

And the chips have started falling in Ahmedabad’s favour with leading financial services player ICICI chosing Ahmedabad over Mumbai for its Rs 1500 crore western region financial services hub that will create a whopping 30,000 jobs by 2012. Kotak Mahindra group too is set to follow suit.

Who says you have to be in Mumbai to be successful? I have never regretted not being based out of Mumbai because Ahmedabad is a more business-friendly city. It is not just a costeffective city to do business in, it offers a better quality of life, good law and order, sound infrastructure and a trouble free labour force Gautam Adani | CHAIRMAN, ADANI GROUP
Though I have had numerous opportunities to move to Mumbai, I have stayed put in Ahmedabad because I feel it offers more advantages. In Mumbai people spend half their life competing, with hardly any personal time left. Here     ‘you can lead a fruitful professional life without really having to struggle for every inch of space and every minute of your life Pankaj Patel | CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, ZYDUS CADILA
We decided to set up our western region back-office hub employing 30,000 persons in Ahmedabad because such a large scale project is no longer affordable in Mumbai. People cannot even dream of setting up such mega-projects in Mumbai today K V Kamath | MD & CEO ICICI BANK