MANAMA: Senior management and key investors of Gulf Finance House (GFH) led by acting chief executive officer Hisham Alrayes returned from a successful visit to the Mumbai Economic Development Zone (MEDZ) project site in India. The visit was to meet senior officials and project managers of the Wadhwa Group, the joint partners and developers of the project, and to see first-hand the progress made on the mixed use development project to date.

MEDZ is GFH's flagship project in India and comprises two core components - Energy City Navi Mumbai (ECNM) and Mumbai IT and Telecom City (MITTIC) projects - covering nearly 1,300 acres of prime development land at Navi Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

The Wadhwa team delivered an informative presentation highlighting their strength and experience in the field and progress made on the project including the successfully established access to its site and the strategies adopted to move it forward.

The presentation included draft plans submitted by Hafeez Contractor, leading architects in India, for the development of phase one of the project.

The investors were also given an update on the exit plans. As part of the exit process, GFH recently commenced the payout of the first tranche of investment to its investors.

"We are very happy to see the amount of progress that has been made to date on the MEDZ project after we put in a strategy to partner with a local developer in India," said Mr Alrayes.

"This development is GFH's flagship project in India, and our investors are keen to continue seeing progress updates as the work continues.

"As part of our re-envisioned business strategy, we are committed to moving our existing infrastructure projects forward towards completion, and achieving successful exits from these projects for our investors," he added.

During the visit, the investors, along with the Wadhwa team, were taken on several tours to visit the MEDZ project site, the major infrastructure projects near the project site, the Wadhwa Group headquarters and some of the key marquee projects of Wadhwa Group in Mumbai.

Amongst these investors were Dubai Investments, Dubai Islamic Bank, QNB Capital, RAK properties, Al Shaya Group, Al Zamil Group, and Tadhamol Capital.