Community
Building for the whole city.
Two commitments sit outside the commercial record: rehousing families from Ahmedabad's informal settlements, and investing in the college where Dhiren Vora trained as an engineer.
Slum-development project approved under Gujarat's Slum Rehabilitation Policy (2011)
Families to receive one-bedroom homes in Amraiwadi, as announced
Square yards of land in Amraiwadi to be redeveloped
Inclusive-housing sites listed by HN Safal: Amraiwadi, Ramapir no Tekro, Bhudarpura
Inclusive housing · 2011–2014
Amraiwadi: the first approval
In July 2011 Gujarat's Urban Development Department issued a government resolution giving Safal Realty Pvt Ltd — referred to in coverage as HN Safal — the work of redeveloping slums in Amraiwadi, in eastern Ahmedabad. It was reported as the first slum-development project approved after the state announced its Slum Rehabilitation Policy.
The plan covered around 40,000 square yards and nearly 1,200 families. Each household was to receive a one-bedroom flat with a kitchen, separate toilet, drinking-water supply and proper drainage, with a landscaped garden for children and a proposed school awaiting approval. At the time, further proposals — including one for Ramapir no Tekro — were pending with the department.
HN Safal's chronology records Amraiwadi Phase 1 in 2013 and Phase 2 in 2014.
The project approved by the government includes construction of 1-BHK flats with kitchen, basic civic amenities such as supply of drinking water, good drainage line and separate toilets.Uday Vora, co-founder, speaking as Chairman of Safal Realty · DNA, 2011
Hutments by settlement
Source: CEPT University, Centre for Urban Equity working paper on Slum Rehabilitation Schemes across Ahmedabad.
Inclusive housing · 2019
Ramapir no Tekro and Bhudarpura
Ramapir no Tekro, on the western bank of the Sabarmati, is widely described as Ahmedabad's largest slum: official figures put it at around 8,000 households, while residents' own estimates run higher. In 2016 the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation tendered its rehabilitation as a public–private partnership under the Mukhya Mantri Gruh Yojana.
HN Safal lists Ramapir no Tekro, together with Bhudarpura Slum Redevelopment, among its 2019 projects, describing both as focused on community upliftment and inclusive development.
Such projects are closely studied. Researchers examining "slum-free" redevelopment in Indian cities have argued that secure tenure and new infrastructure need to be matched by build quality, maintenance and shared community space — a benchmark worth applying to any scheme of this kind.
Education · 2023
Returning to LD College of Engineering
In 2023 L.D. College of Engineering marked 75 years since its founding and convened a Global Alumni Convention. The college publicly introduced Vora as a Civil Engineering alumnus of the 1991 batch and as Chairman and MD of HN Safal who was "committed to supporting his Alma mater".
In a video shared by the college, Vora expressed his gratitude to LDCE and his vision of making it the leading institute in engineering. The college thanked him for his support as a Platinum Donor of the convention, and for his help "in transforming LDCE in a way that makes its student future ready, provides an industrial environment, and practical knowledge, and encourages entrepreneurship".
LDCE today offers 16 undergraduate and 14 postgraduate programmes and teaches several thousand students — a very different institution from the 75-student college of 1948, but still the place where many of Gujarat's civil engineers begin.
Source: L.D. College of Engineering official Facebook posts, 2023 (#ldce75).