On the eve of Diwali, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah together delivered a development package worth over Rs 1,024 crore to the people of Ahmedabad on Monday, November 9, 2026 — blending the festival of lights with a slate of inaugurations and foundation-stone layings that cut across roads, health, education, and housing.

The Rs 464-crore elevated corridor on SG Highway

The centrepiece of the event is the ISKCON Junction–Sanand Elevated Corridor on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar (SG) Highway, constructed at a cost of Rs 464 crore. The SG Highway is one of Ahmedabad's most congested arterial stretches, connecting the city's western commercial belt to the satellite town of Sanand — home to a growing automotive and industrial cluster. An elevated corridor here directly addresses the daily commute of hundreds of thousands of residents, office workers, and freight vehicles.

Ahmedabad has executed several elevated road projects on key corridors since the mid-2010s under state urban mobility plans. This latest addition continues that arc, pushing infrastructure further towards the city's expanding western and south-western periphery.

Keys handed to families at Ramapir no Tekro

Away from the highway, the ceremony carried genuine human weight. Beneficiaries at Ramapir no Tekro — a well-known slum locality in Ahmedabad — received the keys to pucca (permanent) housing units through a computerised draw, ensuring transparent allocation. The housing component is linked to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), the centrally-sponsored scheme launched in 2015 to provide formal shelter to India's urban poor.

For families who have lived in kutcha dwellings in one of Ahmedabad's oldest informal settlements, a computerised draw and a formal key handover is not ceremony — it is a legally binding change in circumstance.

A Knowledge Hub in Jodhpur and a health centre in Gota

Rounding out the package: a Knowledge Hub in Jodhpur locality — positioned as an education and skill-development facility — and an advanced Urban Health Centre in Gota, a rapidly urbanising north-west Ahmedabad neighbourhood. The Gota centre aligns with the National Urban Health Mission, which since 2013 has funded primary health infrastructure in fast-growing city wards that often outpace their public health supply.

Amit Shah's presence at the event is not incidental. It signals Centre-state coordination on urban schemes that draw from both national programmes and state budgets — and it places Ahmedabad's development firmly within the broader BJP political narrative ahead of civic and state cycles.

Four major projects, one festive afternoon, one city. The question is whether Ahmedabad's next million residents will see the pipeline keep pace.