Sanand
Encyclopedia
Sanand is a city and a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in Ahmedabad district in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 of Gujarat. It is also referred as Auto hub or Detroit of Gujarat.

History

Sanand is a small village near Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

 city. It was ruled by the Vaghelas in the past. The Palace which was built by the Vaghelas is present and it is the home of the royal family of Sanand. The famous artist of the Mewati Gharana, Late Maharana Jaiwant Sinh Vaghela was from the royal family of Sanand. He was a great musician and also the guru of Pandit Jasraj
Pandit Jasraj
Pandit Jasraj is an Indian classical vocalist. He is the foremost exponent of the Mewati Gharana of Hindustani classical music.-Early life:Jasraj was born in Hisar, Haryana in an orthodox brahmin family to Pandit Motiramji, a classical exponent. His family is well known for singing in the Mewati...

. His son was Late Maharana Rudradutt Sinhji Vaghela of Sanand. His son and the present king of Sanand is Maharana Jaishiv Sinhji Vaghela of Sanand. He has a son who is 17 years old and the present yuvraj Dhruv Sinh Vaghela of Sanand and a daughter Katayayini Sinh Vaghela of Sanand who is 12 years old.

Pandit Jasraj frequently visits Sanand. Historically this place is related to the Pandavas also. When Arjuna
Arjuna
Arjuna in Indian mythology is the greatest warrior on earth and is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Arjuna, whose name means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' Arjuna (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: อรชุน, Orachun, Tamil: Arjunan, Indonesian and Javanese: Harjuna,...

 was coming back from Godhavi (a nearby village of sanand), it is said that he took rest at this place and felt an immense pleasure. Thus the name of the city came Sa (with) + Anand (pleasure)

Geography

Sanand is located at 22.98°N 72.38°E. It has an average elevation of 38 metres (124 feet).

Demographics

India census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Sanand had a population of 32,348. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Sanand has an average literacy rate of 72%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 79%, and female literacy is 65%. In Sanand, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Economy

Sanand is part of the dedicated Viramgam Special Investment Region of Gujarat.

Located near the city of Ahmedabad, Sanand is about 70 kilometers (40 miles) from a recently rebuilt international airport. Sanand is linked to Ahmedabad and Kutch by state highway 17. The state highway 17 joins India's National Highway 8, part of the recently completed 4-lane Golden Quadrilateral
Golden Quadrilateral
The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway network connecting India's four largest metropolises: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, thus forming a quadrilateral of sorts. Four other top ten metropolises: Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Surat, are also served by the network...

 highway linking Sanand to many of the major industrial, economic and cultural regions of India. Sanand is connected by a modern highway to Mundra Port
Mundra Port
Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone Limited manages the largest privately owned port in the country. The port project was initiated in 1988 by the Adani Group as a logistics base for their international trade operations when the sector was opened for private sector...

, a fully operational and one of the fastest growing, recently expanded sea ports in southeast Asia. Sanand is about 350 kilometers (220 miles) from Mundra port. Sanand is also close to the proposed Dholera port and international airport. Once approved and built, Dholera will provide Sanand with a secondary and competing means of air, ocean and road logistics, both within India and to global markets.

In addition to modern highways, Sanand-Viramgam has an operational broad gauge railway network connecting it to major industrial centers located in Gujarat.

Sanand has become one of the booming entrepreneurial centers in India. Like industrial hubs in the developed countries and export centers in China, Sanand offers the following competitive incentives to companies seeking to set up operations within Sanand region:
  • Income Tax Incentives
  • 10 year corporate tax holiday on export profit – 100% for initial 5 years and 50% for the next 5 years
  • Exemption from dividend distribution tax
  • Indirect Tax Incentives
  • Zero customs duty
  • Zero excise duty
  • Exemption from central sales tax
  • Exemption from service tax


Sanand has recently attracted commitments of billions of US dollars in investments from some of world's largest companies. Some of these companies have already started producing and shipping products, while others have announced facility completion and product shipment within the next 1-3 years. Some examples include:

Tata Motors

Tata Motors
Tata Motors
Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO...

 in June 2010 rolled out the first Nano
Nano
Nano- is a prefix meaning a billionth. Used primarily in the metric system, this prefix denotes a factor of 10−9 or . It is frequently encountered in science and electronics for prefixing units of time and length, such as 30 nanoseconds , 100 nanometres or in the case of electrical capacitance,...

 cars from its main manufacturing plant at Northcote Cattle Farm. The construction time was a record breaking 14 months. The cost amounted to 20 Milliard Indian Rupees (Ca. 20 Milliard Euro). During the starting period the production plant employed 2.400 staff. Including the indirect jobs around the plant there were about 10.000 people depending on the initial production.
The plant has a capacity to manufacture 250,000 cars a year in the first phase, which will be scaled up to 500,000 cars a year. The project, including Tata Motors
Tata Motors
Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO...

 plant, vendor facilities and a railway transportation hub near Nidhrad Village , will together generate over 20,000 direct and indirect jobs. This plant uses land of Gujarat Agricultural University which was in the name of Government of Gujarat.

Sanand Nano Land controversy

The 1100 acres of Land which was allotted to Tata falls in villages Khoda and Bol in Sanand Taluka.

According to one report:
  • Immediately after the Nano deal was sealed, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation had notified six villages for acquisition in Sanand. Farmers initially were under the impression that the authorities will take away their land for free. In distress, about 3,000 of them protested. The government explained that it was not trying to get their land for free, declared the price of the land at Rs 1,200 per square meter (US$ 108,000 per acre), four-times better than the market price. The opposition crumbled, farmers enthusiastically cooperated with the government, and agreed to the acquisition.
  • Post-acquisition, the locals claim one of the biggest gains to come out of the Nano project is that the environment in our village has improved drastically. The Gujarat government has placed significant efforts into preventing pollution and improving environmental quality in Sanand. It has given notice to factories, small as well as large, that emit high levels of pollution in the area to either leave or treat the pollutants. This has been well received by rural communities around Sanand.


Tata paid Rs 900/sqm (US$ 81,000 per acre) to Gujarat Government for the land in Sanand.

Automotive manufacturing is a globally competitive industry. For context purposes, the price paid by Tata may be compared with land prices elsewhere in the world:
  • According to The Financial Times, in 2008, the farmland prices in France were Euro 6,000 per hectare ($2,430 per acre; IN Rs. 1,09,350 per acre).
  • According to the United States Department of Agriculture, as of January 2010, the average farmland value in the United States was $2,140 per acre (IN Rs. 96,300 per acre). The farmland prices in the United States varied between different parts of the country, ranging between $480 per acre to $4,690 per acre.


According to a July 2011 report from the Government of India, the average land productivity from farming in India is less than Rs 22,500 per year per acre (USD 500 per acre per year). The average rural household per capita expenditure/income in 2010, was IN Rs. 11,136 per year (US$ 252 per year).

Ford

  • Car manufacturing plant
  • Stamping plant
  • Car body paintshop
  • Engine plant
  • Final Assembly plant


On 28 July 2011, Ford announced a deal to invest Rs 40 billion (U$906m) to build a plant in Sanand.

The plant, spread over 460 acres, will have a capacity to make 240,000 cars/year and 270,000 engines/year. 5000 people will be employed at the plant, another 25,000 indirectly and another 6000 in ancillary engineering, totalling 36,000 jobs.

Ford chose Gujarat over Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

 because Tamil Nadu no longer has a surplus of electricity as it did in 1996 when Ford built their plant in Chennai.

The 460 acres was leasted to Ford for Rs 1100/sqm while the prevailing market rate in the area is Rs 4000/sqm.

The President of Ford Asia-Pacific-Africa, Joe Hinrichs, said it takes 10 days to transport cars from its Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

 plant to Punjab. Sanand is on the Delhi-Mumbai Freight Corridor and can reach showrooms in northern states more quickly and cheaply.

Construction of the plant is from end-2011 with car production to begin in 2014.

CSA Peugeot Citroën

  • Car manufacturing plant
  • Stamping plant
  • body paintshop
  • engine plant
  • gearbox plant
  • Final assembly plant


The French automobile maker signed an agreement with the Gujarat government on the 1st of Septembter 2011.

French car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen has chosen the Indian state of Gujarat to build a 650-million-euro ($928-million) factory capable of turning out 165,000 vehicles per year.

The integrated manufacturing and engine and gearbox facility, which should come on line in 2013, will generate 5,000 new jobs in the rapidly developing Sanand automotive cluster.
  • 25% of the production will be exported.


Under the framework of this agreement, Peugeot plans to invest Rs 4,000 crore on a 584 acre site in the heart of the rapidly developing Sanand automotive cluster in Western India.

The agreement was inked between the Gujarat Government officials and representatives of PSA Peugeot Citroen in the presence of chief minister Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat.He was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar; and is a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, as also an active politician since early in life. He holds a masters degree in political...

 and Philippe Varin, chairman of the managing board of PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Hitachi Ltd

Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd announced a 60:40 joint venture between Japanese electronics major, Hitachi Ltd and Hi-Rel Electronics Pvt Ltd, an Ahmedabad-based power electronics products maker, is setting up a manufacturing facility of power equipment at Sanand near Ahmedabad.

Other Industries

The Indian pharmaceutical company Cadila Healthcare
Cadila Healthcare
'Cadila Healthcare' is an Indian pharmaceutical company head quartered at Ahmedabad in Gujarat state of western India. The company is the fifth largest pharmaceutical company in India, with US$290m in turnover in 2004. It is a significant manufacturer of generic drugs...

has a plant to make Generic Medicines at Moraiya within Sanand taluka.

Indian Real Estate giants, DLF & Parswanath are in talks to acquire large land area near Sanand to develop major townships close to Ahmedabad.

Industrial Land Availability

The state-owned Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation has acquired 5000 acres of land in and around Sanand for future use by industries.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK