Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, 17 May inaugurated the Ganesh Real Estate Management Institute (GREMI) in Ahmedabad, calling for a fundamental overhaul of India's approach to urban development and warning that unplanned city growth had set the country back by decades. The event also marked the launch of Million Minds Tech City in the Tragad neighbourhood.

The Core Diagnosis

Shah argued that Indian cities had historically grown without foresight, leaving planners scrambling to retrofit infrastructure after populations had already settled. 'When town planning is not proper, good cities are not built. Unfortunately, in our country, most cities kept growing first, and later we tried to provide facilities,' he said.

He added that critical considerations — environmental integration, planning frameworks, and town planning schemes — had never been addressed in a cohesive, comprehensive manner. 'No one has ever attempted to address it in a comprehensive manner,' Shah said, describing the gap as both structural and institutional.

Modi's Gujarat Model as a Reference Point

Shah credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister with initiating what he described as 'one of the first attempts in India to plan infrastructure and civic facilities' before large-scale settlement occurred. 'For the first time in India, planning for facilities before people started living there was initiated,' he said, holding up the town planning schemes introduced during that period as a template the rest of the country could learn from.

What GREMI Will Do

GREMI has been established specifically to close the knowledge and leadership gap in India's real estate and urban planning sectors. The institute will launch operations in a 30,000-square-foot facility, enrolling an initial cohort of 300 students. A permanent main campus is planned near Khodiyar Lake on a 100-acre site, with an estimated investment of approximately ₹500 crore.

Shah acknowledged that the institute may not address every dimension of urban planning at the outset, but expressed confidence in its trajectory. 'If the beginning has happened, then it will definitely move ahead,' he said. He stressed that the sector needed skilled leadership, modern thinking, and professionals capable of adapting international best practices to Indian conditions.

Who Attended

The inauguration was attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, and senior officials of Ganesh Housing Limited, the promoter entity behind the institute.

Broader Significance

India is urbanising at a pace that strains existing civic systems. With more than 500 million people projected to live in Indian cities by 2050, according to various estimates, the absence of trained urban planners and real estate managers is increasingly cited as a structural bottleneck. GREMI's launch, backed by political visibility at the Union level, signals growing acknowledgement that professionalising urban development is a policy priority — not merely an academic exercise. Whether the institute can scale to meet that demand will depend on curriculum depth, industry linkages, and the quality of its permanent campus once operational.