A brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Dholera Project is the perfect initiative to combat urbanization issues and a key investment option for all sort of investors. An official in the know of things says that the Dholera project encompasses an area of 920 square kilometres and is being developed with active support of the Gujarat government.
The ‘dream project’ of PM Modi, the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), technically took birth long before he became the Prime Minister.
It will be developed as the megacity of ‘uncompromised infrastructure and state-of-the-art technology’.
It will be much larger than Singapore. The Gujarat government has plans to create 30,000 jobs within the two-three years at Dholera Smart city, Gujarat.
“The Gujarat government has been aiming at taking forward this project on a fast track mode with increased investment,” an official said.
The official further told ‘Organiser’, “The Dholera Project shall be a home to millions of people in search of affordable housing and thousands of companies looking for a place to establish and expand their businesses. The proximity that Dholera SIR Project shares with the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor(DMIC) makes the location even more desirable, making it a potential global trading and manufacturing hub”.
“In Dholera project we have probably one of the biggest that Indian government has ever visualized. This will finally emerge as a project that shall be twice the size of Mumbai and six times that of Shanghai. It’s a dream that cannot perhaps go beyond a vision,” another official remarked.
To support its accessibility, the connectivity of the region has been well planned and connects it through roads, rail, metro, highway and air to all important cities of the world.
According to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Dholera is the first new smart city in the country to get an Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) rating.
The Chief Minister also said when implemented and functional, Dholera SIR is bigger than a developed country like Singapore.
If it sounds big and of a global scale, one could easily think of the project as a pro-rich or pro-urbane. Well, to an extent it would be, as international standards would demand so.
However, those in the know of things says with better connectivity provided by new roads and trains connecting, the Dholera project with surrounding regions, farmers can access markets far away faster.
Of course, when completed, the Dholera Smart city Gujarat is anticipated to generate lakhs of jobs for locals and attract investments worth billions into the country. The new infrastructures will change rural life for farmers and their families.
ReNew Power and Chiripal Group, two of the five companies given land in the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), have begun building their units.
Chief Minister Patel also visited the project site to check on the progress of work lately.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unveiled the design on April 15th, 2017, at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The construction of 1st Phase will be completed in 2023 and by the year 2042, it would have completed its final phase of works.
In the first phase, sources say the world-class infrastructure worth Rs 3,000 crore had been built in an area of 22.5 square kilometres. Around 90% of the work was done on the activation area, which is a small part of the SIR.
Takeaways:
- Located on the banks of the river Sabarmati, Dholera project is about 80 kilometres from Ahmedabad.
- Commercial plots start at around Rs 40 lakh for around, 10000 sq ft and residential plots start at Rs 20 lakh for around 4500 sq ft.
- Tata Chemicals Ltd is building a 10 GWh Li-ion battery plant on 126 acres, Hindustan Petroleum is building gas stations and charging stations for electric vehicles on three acres, and Torrent Power has built a power distribution network on six acres.
ReNew Power has been given 100 acres of land for solar plants with a capacity of 2000 MW. - Chiripal has been given 90 acres for a plant that will make aluminium foil and PET Resin.
Inset:
- The Gujarat government has given the green signal to the state’s first monorail project between Ahmedabad and Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR).
- Industries in Dholera Smart City : Electronics, Aviation, Auto and ancillaries, Heavy engineering, Defence, High-tech, General Manufacturing, Agro and food processing
Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology and Metals and metallurgical products. - Key Phases and milestones done by 2030, and complete works to be done by 2042.
- “Gujarat has not only attained new milestones in development, it has redefined the concept of progress and prosperity and to an extent what a welfare state can achieve. The officials now need not look to run after investors. Investors are queuing in to enter Gujarat. It’s therefore time to spread wings and take the next leap into the open sky and future space,” – says an official.
Gujarat is at the cusp of a writing yet another new chapter.
