Gandhinagar Joins India's Growing League of Municipal Bond Cities

Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) has successfully listed its maiden municipal bonds worth ₹25 crore on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The issue saw an oversubscription of 9 times, attracting bids worth ₹225 crore in just one hour!

With this, Gandhinagar becomes:

The 5th ULB in Gujarat to issue municipal bonds (after Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot)

The 17th city in India to tap the bond market for urban infrastructure

India's municipal bond ecosystem is slowly expanding. States with multiple bond-issuing cities include:

Uttar Pradesh - Kanpur, Lucknow, Ghaziabad

Maharashtra - Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Nashik, Nagpur

Madhya Pradesh - Bhopal, Indore

The biggest enabler? Strong state-level push-through credit rating initiatives, policy support, and technical handholding.

Cities can unlock capital for infrastructure only when the state creates the ecosystem to support them.