Nano has a Rs 2,000-cr neighbour

The country’s first-ever education park-based city to come up in Nal sarovar’s vicinity, about 40 kmS from Nano car plant in Sanand
By Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 04:04:31 AM (Ahmedabad Mirror : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article&sectname=News%20-%20City&sectid=3&contentid=2009011120090111040431983e7e3bbc)

Site of the proposed education park-based city, displayed through a red square, and the surrounding areas, shown through a Google Earth picture

The state government has given its nod to a proposal of creating India’s first-ever Rs 2,000-crore education park-based city near Nal Sarovar, about 40 km from Tata Motors’ Nano car plant in Sanand. Incidentally, Nano project is also worth Rs 2,000 crore.The project, named Nal Sarovar Education Park, will be promoted by an Ahmedabad-based firm New Era Agrotech Infra Private Limited, about 10 km off Nal Sarovar on a 2,000-acre plot near Durgi village.

The company top brass and officials of the state government will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on January 13 at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit and ground work will commence in July 2009, with a eight-year deadline to complete the project.

The Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA), under whose purview the deal is being finalised, confirmed the development. Said AUDA’s chief town planner, Neela Munshi, “The state government will enter into a MoU with New Era Agrotech to finalise an education park project near Nal Sarovar on January 13.”

Special care will be taken to ensure that ecological equilibrium of Nal Sarovar bird sanctuary does not get affected in any manner because of the project. In fact, this project will be a part of the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited’s plan to create an eco-tourism project around the 15-km periphery of Nal Sarovar. Under the proposed project, which hopes of cater to 50,000 students at any given time and provide direct employment to 3,000 people, the park will be divided into four parts — School Zone, College Zone, University Zone and Residential Zone.

The proposed University will have departments of Mass Communication, Design, Architecture, Animation, Environmental Design, Fine Arts, Humanities, Law and social Sciences. Engineering and medical institutes will come under College Zone, while School Zone will comprise pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher secondary schools under Gujarat Education Board, CBSE and ICSE.Falling under Residential Zone will be hostels, houses for faculty and support staff, sports complexes, recreation and entertainment facilities, hospitals, food courts and restaurants and parks.There will be a separate research park and a science and technology park as well.

The education park will aim for a tie-up with leading Universities in England and US. New Era Agrotech’s promoter, Dr Ashish Desai, said he has been planning what he called his “dream project” for the last one decade. “The education facilities in Gujarat, in terms of higher technical education, are insufficient. “Because of that, a large number of students from the state are forced to seek education in professional courses elsewhere.

We want to put an end to that.”Desai, who is also a managing trustee of Springfield International School and Nirmaan High School’s Panchvati and Vastrapur branches, said even at school level, there are no residential Public schools that can provide basic foundation to students hoping to excel in national level competitions like CAT, IAS, IPS, IRS, etc.