Gandhinagar: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani laid a stone today for proposed local head office of leading public sector bank the State Bank of India(SBI) in presence of SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya and Chief Secretary Dr JN Singha at GIFT city in Gandhinagar.

On this occasion, Regional Chief Manager Mr. Nautiyal of SBI said the bank has decided to shift its local head office from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar, work for which will be completed by year 2019.

Speaking on this occasion Sudhir Mankad who heads GIFT city project said, “in every country business district is the place that has iconic buildings. And the most iconic building is bank. I had visited Ahmedabad headquarters of State Bank in Lal Darwaja area 6 years ago to meet the Chief General Manager in order to propose that SBI should be the first bank to come to GIFT city. I wish SBI puts this project of building office tower and residential tower on the fast track so that we can have its inauguration in year 2019 Vibrant Gujarat Summit. This is only beginning. State Bank is too bigger bank in this country to have just office and residential tower. This is a technology drive project. There’s immense opportunity for back-office operations, IT hub and developing international business for GIFT city.What State Bank will do, other banks in the country would follow.

Speaking in the function Chief Secretary Dr J.N.Singh said SBI will be both in domestic finance center as well as in SEZ area. He said the Government of Gujarat has waived off stamp duty for GIFT city. He said 2019 will be too late and SBI Chairman should see that the inauguration of buildings should take place within 12 months.

SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya in her address said the Ahmedabad branch of SBI was inaugurated as early as in1862 while the head office in Ahmedabad was built in 1965. It is already 50-year old. Not just we were outgrowing the had office but Lal Darwaja is very crowded place and customers did have a problem of parking their cars and so on. Shifting was suitable to us therefore. We will have a 14-floor plus basement building over 2 lakh square ft area. We are also going to build two residential towers with 180 apartment for core staff and 7 bungalows for top management. But many staff members and others will need to travel to this head office and therefore we wish if the govt can undertake metro rail project(connecting Ahmedabad to GIFT city) quickly for fast utilization of office.

Addressing the function Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said he hopes other banks would also follow SBI. Rupani gave example of Mahatma Mandir which was built in record-152 days.

DeshGujarat