Dholera Special Investment Region
(SIR) is likely be the first smart city of the 100 smart cities planned by the
NDA government. It is estimated to be completed by the year 2025 with its first
phase to be launched by 2019 and shall be six times the size of Shanghai.
As per Talleen Kumar, MD & CEO of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial
Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC), Dholera is running ahead as
compared to the other four smart cities identified by the government. The four
cities are Shendra-Bidkin in Maharashtra, Vikram Udyogpuri Township in Ujjain,
Integrated Industrial Township in Greater Noida and Global City in Gurgaon.
Dholera spread over 920 square
kilometers is an ancient port city in Gulf of Khambhat and has multiple
advantages which are locational and infrastructural in nature. It is connected
with important cities of Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Mumbai through the National
Highway 8 and is also a part of the famous Golden Quadrilateral, a 500 km
Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Vadodara Express way.
The ICT Consultant hiring tender
RSQ cum RSP has already been floated for Dholera and it shall be very soon that
the smart city shall witness its digital master plan being broken down into
smaller components so that plan of action for executing each component can be
laid down. The government of India has sanctioned an initial amount of Rs. 48,000
crore towards development of 100 smart cities and subsequent amount of Rs. 100
crore towards each smart city every year. In an interview with CNBC TV 18, Mr.
Talleen Kumar expressed his view regarding the funds and its sufficiency for
the project.
As per him the exact sum involved
in building up the smart city is yet to be calculated and shall be done once an
Integrated Communication Technology (ICT) consultant is engaged and hired. In
conversation with the journalist, he stated that “the amount that you are
saying is also a sizeable and significant amount because from whatever I know
it says that this is the contribution of Government of India which can be
leveraged to get contribution from states, from local government and also from
private sector depending on how the project is structured.”
The Greenfield cities shall be
converted to smart cities with the help of five infra and five social verticals
that have been identified and finalized. The social verticals include
education, health, inclusive development, participative governance and
community assets while the infra verticals consists of energy and energy
management, water and water management, transportation and traffic management,
public safety and solid waste management. The deployment and usage of real time
data shall play a pivotal role in the quality of life of residents as well as
building the much required efficiency within the system. It shall also ease
decision making capabilities and cause socio-economic upliftment at all levels
of the society.
Dholera SIR, the city which has a
head start in planning and development is aimed to become the manufacturing hub
with a state-of-art infrastructure. The quantitative deliverables over the next
five years are to double the employment potential, triple the industrial output
and quadruple the exports from the region. The ratio we are speaking about here
in significant and are capable of changing the current scenario by leaps and
bounds. The infrastructure planned is robust connecting the city to all major
cities through rail, road, air and port. A central express way and metro rail
is planned to link the region with all mega cities and the nearness to the sea
port is an added advantage. Its vicinity to Gujarat International Finance
Tec-City (GIFT) and Petro-chemicals and Petroleum Inv. Region (PCPIR) helps it
score bonus points on the chart as well as short distances from important
cities of Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Vadodara makes the region easily
approachable.
The SIR region with its various
positives is attracting reputed companies and investors with deep pockets from
all over the world. The real estate and infrastructure development arm of the
Mahindra Group, Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited (MLDL) is planning to
develop business city in the region. This shall be developed in the format of Mahindra
World City format and shall cover an enormous area of 3000 acres. Similarly
3000 acres of land has been acquired by Singapore Based Capitaland Investment
Trust along through its Indian arm Isobar Global Holdings to develop a high end
logistic hub. Nano Works Developer Gujarat Pvt Ltd , a Sabeer Bhatia owned
company has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gujarat
government to acquire 1500 acres of land.
The responsibility to develop Dholera SIR as a smart city
now vests with Cisco and IBM while British infrastructure development Halcrow
has been appointed as master planners for the project. A central digital
control mechanism is being planned along with underground sensor system that
shall control the entire infrastructure of the city including water, power and
gas traffic.
Dholera shall be the first city
to bring about a paradigm shift in the way us Indians shall live and
communicate and if most of it is executed as planned; it definitely shall be
worth waiting for!
Sources:-
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