Ahmedabad Realty Is Growing. Can It Keep Up With Transit Projects?

This is a response to population that is exceeds 8 million people, with daily trips crossing over 5.2 million on the city's public transportation system alone. Even more surprising is that the 5.2 million trips constitute 30 per cent of the total trips in the cities and rest 70 per cent is all private. 

Megaprojects Drive Regional Mobility 

The agglomeration is growing quickly, with mass commute and migration happening inter and intra city. Some recent mega projects include DMIC, the SG Road redevelopment project, the Ahmedabad Metro project, BRTS expansion, AMTS route optimisation and so on and so forth — all responding to the large scale development in the Ahmedabad region. 

Key Private & Public Actors

Ahmedabad’s transit and mobility future is undergoing a mega restructuring and development by key private and public actors. The Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) is overlooking the development of Phase 1 and 2 of the Metro corridors, while the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) is spearheading the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, which is expected to operate at a top speed of 320 kmph, drastically reducing travel times to a third of the existing travel time. 

The NHAI is involved in the construction of the Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway as a critical component of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). Major infrastructure firms like Larsen & Toubro, Tata Projects and Afcons, are executing key segments, with technical consultants such as SYSTRA, RITES and Egis India handling system design and integration across projects.

Corridor-Based Regional Integration

This is to ensure regional integration through strategic corridors that connect Ahmedabad with key nodes at multiple scales. The Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar axis, anchored by the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway, is developing into a regional economic spine, while satellite cities like Kalol, Sanand and Mehmedabad are being reinforced via expressways and industrial corridors, and now the Metro.

At the national scale, high-speed rail and expressways are positioning Ahmedabad as a key node between Mumbai, Delhi, and other major metros.

Real Estate Response To Ahmedabad's Large-Scale Transit Growth

Real estate developers are closely tracking Ahmedabad’s transit-led growth, but they also voice critical concerns. Dilip Patel of Jalaram Infratech and Realty says areas within a 1-km radius of Metro stations — especially Vastral, Motera, and Thaltej — have seen over 18 per cent price appreciation, with rental values for commercial spaces near Metro nodes rising even faster than in traditional central business districts like C G Road. 

One of the main reasons is obviously the doubling of the floor space index (FSI). In many cases, the jump is from 1.8 per cent to 4.5 per cent, with extra incentives that allow you to use up to 3 times of 1.8 — the older FSI number. This will change the face of the city and its services. 

However, he highlights that approval processes remain a bottleneck, often taking 18-24 months, while existing zoning and building regulations lag behind the transit-oriented development (TOD) guidelines notified by the state in 2022. 

Patel calls for urgent reforms, including zoning densification, more flexible FSI norms, and the implementation of single — window clearance systems to match the pace of infrastructure expansion.

Incremental Urbanism

Incremental plans for the city’s sprawl look very different. In just five years within a zonal master plan window, AUDA feels the need for something like, for instance, a GIFT City. That completely changes how capital moves, but it also deeply reconfigures a particular place in terms of land prices, development pressure, unaccounted migration, etc. 

These are some of the elements whose management sets up a frame for developers to come and invest. Without that, there are all kinds of uncertainties. A two-year wait for regulatory clearance is not financially viable.

Economic Repositioning With Bullet Train 

India’s first high-speed rail project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai spans 508 km and is expected to cut journey time to just 2 hours and 7 minutes, with 12 stations along the route — including Sabarmati, where a major multimodal hub is under development.

Rajiv Deshmukh of UltraTech emphasises that this is not just a transport initiative but an urban structuring tool. 

He notes that Sabarmati is experiencing unprecedented land interest, with over 85 hectares being demarcated for commercial redevelopment within a 1.5-km radius of the terminal. Recommendations include allowing a FSI of 4-5 to enable vertical, mixed-use growth. 

However, Deshmukh cautions that underdeveloped and non-updated land pooling mechanisms, and a lack of formal coordination between the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), and Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) is fundamental to this gap.

Without pairing transit nodes and robust land value capture mechanisms, he warns that cities risk losing both valuable revenue and the opportunity to optimise land use, and predicts the mushrooming of a lot of anticipation and a rising black market economy. 

A Big Industrial Investment Push

The 110-km Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway, a key component of the Bharatmala project, is slated to open in late May 2025 and is expected to halve travel time to the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR).

Supported by an estimated several thousand crores, the project is moving quickly under the EPC model under developers like Sadbhav Engineering and GHV India.

Pritiben Desai, an assistant engineer (infrastructure and techhnology) with the AMC, said Dholera is targeting Rs 1.2 lakh crore in investments across sectors such as green manufacturing, logistics, and data centres. She stressed the critical role of the expressway, noting that without it, commute times currently exceed 2.5 hours. 

However, she warned that unless the expressway is effectively integrated with airport connectivity and Metro extensions — specifically the proposed 109-km Dholera Metro — SIR risks becoming a stranded asset.

Desai also pointed to rising land prices in the region, with current rates at Rs 600-900 per sqft, a 40 per cent rise since 2021 that indicates strong speculative interest.

Kunal Joshi, CEO of UrbanGrid Developers, outlines the evolving investment landscape in Ahmedabad, noting a shift from project-level to corridor-level thinking.

“We’re moving from project-to-corridor thinking. The big opportunity is in infrastructure-linked land banking. But clear land titles, environmental clearances, and alignment with trunk infrastructure are weak links. For instance, power and water provisioning for Dholera’s Phase 2 sectors are still under planning — this delays occupancy.” 

Emerging business models include transit-oriented leasing for co-living and coworking spaces near Metro stations; warehousing and logistics hubs along the Dholera corridor and in Sanand; and REIT-backed mixed-use developments near bullet train and Metro hubs.

However, several systemic hurdles continue to obstruct free-flowing investment. Fragmented governance — with AMC, AUDA, DSIRDA, and GMRC operating in silos — slows coordination. 

Regulatory Gaps; Weak Data

Land acquisition remains a bottleneck. While Ahmedabad fared better than Vadodara, where land for a bullet train station took over 3.5 years to acquire, delays persist.

Regulatory inconsistency is also a concern, as TOD guidelines, notified in 2022, have yet to be uniformly applied across metro corridors. Last-mile connectivity is lacking, with only 36 per cent of Metro stations supported by integrated feeder systems. 

There is another issue: Transit system expansion results in speculative markets. Rather, if the TOD guidelines just match the land development guidelines, it would make a lot of things easier for developers. 

Additionally, Ahmedabad suffers from weak data infrastructure. Dynamic commuter modeling, essential for prioritising transport corridors, is absent.

Instead, the city relies on static master plans with 10-year update gaps and 20-year regulatory windows, a pace too slow for the city's rapidly evolving urban realities. 

A Blueprint to Incremental and Integrated Urban Development 

Nonetheless, Ahmedabad stands on the brink of a multimodal transformation. The convergence of Metro expansion, high-speed rail and expressway infrastructure is positioning it as a key national and regional growth node. 

To fully unlock this transit and real estate potential, deep reforms in planning, governance, and regulatory alignment is essential. If done right and in a timely fashion, Ahmedabad could serve as a replicable blueprint for other Indian cities to respond to rapid growth with smart, integrated, and inclusive mobility systems.