Dholera Greenfield Smart City – A Trillion Dollar baby – Part I

Ever since our Honorable PM Sh. Narendra Modi announced “100 Smart Cities Mission” we have been hearing so much about smart cities, we have so many questions about smart cities, like how are they made? What is basically a Smart City? How an existing city will be converted to something robotic wherein everything will be done by machines or technology? What are Greenfield and Brownfield Cities? What sort of technology is used in making smart cities? Like these there is an endless list of such questions, and today I thought let me just put all these questions together and explore Dholera Greenfield Smart City from its core to the peak.

Yes, we are talking about much talked Greenfield Smart City, India’s First and DMIC’s (Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor) the biggest Smart and Sustainable Dholera Smart City and what will make Dholera a “Trillion Dollar Baby”.

A Special Purpose company was formed to facilitate and promote DMIC or Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor with the name of DMICDC or Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited. However, when more Industrial Corridor projects were announced, the mandate of DMICDC was expanded to develop and implement all the Industrial corridor projects and name of DMICDC was changed to NICDC means National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) Limited.

Government of India is working on to develop various Industrial corridor projects as a part of National Industrial Corridor program with an objective to develop various futuristic industrial cities which will emerge as best manufacturing and investment destinations across the globe. The National Industrial Corridor program will generate a lot of direct and in-direct employment which will in-turn result in economic growth, and we will see overall socio-economic development of our country. 11 Industrial Corridors Projects are being taken up for development, with 30 Projects to be developed in 4 phases up to 2024-25.

These Industrial Corridor programs are to be developed in phases where in NICDC will work in coordination with state governments for the development of these corridors and along with these a lot of new industries smart cities will be developed.

Let’s talk in-depth about Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor

Overall length of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor will be 1504 KMS, and it will cover several states including UP, Delhi NCR, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra with end terminals at Dadri in Delhi NCR and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) near Mumbai.

8 new Industrial Regions are to be developed along with DMIC Corridor. These regions will redefine the development of new future cities not only in India but across the Globe. Below are the names of these regions:

So, these are our new 8 future cuties to be developed along with DMIC alignment and Dholera SIR is going to be one of the largest Smart and Sustainable Greenfield Industrial City in making and that is how Dholera adds a special value to DMIC. Dholera is going to create a self sustainable ecosystem through which 3 pillars of sustainability that are Social, Environmental and Economic will be covered completely.

We’ve been hearing about Smart City so much these days, let talk about how these cities are categorized in Greenfield and Brownfield.

Greenfield Smart Cities

Greenfield Smart Cities are developed on barren land. Usually these areas are identified far from the cities or existing cities and where there is scope of development and where it will be beneficial to people. As the name itself suggest it’s just Greenfield, where no development has

ever happened and everything gets started from zero. In India, Greenfield Smart Cities program comes under Ministry of Commerce.

Brownfield Smart Cities

Brownfield Cities are those cities which are already existing, and we try to convert them into better developed cities by implementing various technologies like sensors across the city, smart traffic management, technologies like IoT, ICT, Wi-Fi etc. widening of roads, expressways, highways, roads and services. Cities like Faridabad or Noida in Delhi NCR or Surat or Ahmedabad in Gujarat are few examples of Brownfield Smart Cities.

Modi Govt. in 2015 launched 100 Smart Cities Mission which is under Ministry of Urban Development (MoUd).

So, Greenfield and Brownfield Smart Cities are totally different concepts and has nothing to do with each other. Complete work approach, execution process, everything is different, even ministries are different for both the concepts.

Dholera being developed from barren land has seen no development before; this essentially means that Dholera comes under category of a Greenfield Smart City. Bigger than Delhi and Mumbai and conceived like international cities Frankfurt and London, Dholera is all set to give exponential returns on investment to its investors. At the present moment, Dholera is in early development phase and development of Dholera is also happening as per the Master Plan designed.

Are there any other Greenfield Smart Cities in the world getting developed like Dholera?

Oh yes, in various parts of world such Greenfield Smart and Sustainable Cities are developed from scratch. Some of the examples of such cities are:

Dholera SIR is spread across 920 sq km, however, developable area will be only 420 sq KMS so that question arises like what will happen to the rest of the designated area. And, the answer is that area has been kept for nature, yes, you heard it right, in rest of the area will be kept for renewable energy generation, parks, green spaces, tree plantations, water reservoirs, solar parks etc.

Today Frankfurt is one of the best examples of a sustainable city as half of the city is actually just green. Similarly, Dholera is being conceived, which is going to make it the most sustainable smart city on this planet.

Dholera is also following 3 major pillars of sustainability which are Social, Environmental and Economic. Social pillar takes care of people and people reflects mobility and quality of life like infrastructure of the city, smart transportation, healthcare, education, income inequality, work-life balance, all these indicators focus on quality of life. Environmental pillar will take care of our planet, and it will take care of renewable energy share of the city, recycling rates, solid waste management, water treatment, potable water, sanitation etc. And, last pillar that is Economic which is all about profit and assesses business environment and economic performance of our city. Ease of doing business, easy taxation policies, single window clearances, living cost, property cost, GDP per capita and of course energy efficiency. It’s like creating an importance of your city in the global economic networks.

About Author: Ms. Meenakshi Khurana, Managing Director, SmartHomes Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. which is the pioneer in Dholera Real Estate market as technically most advanced and innovative developers & builders.

SmartHomes Infrastructure: SmartHomes Infrastructure Private Limited, a real estate developer, entered the Dholera market 6 years back and now is one of the leading and most innovative developers and landowners of inside Dholera SIR and on border of Dholera SIR. SmartHomes Infrastructure owns huge land parcels & multiple projects in Dholera Smart City. Smart Homes is focusing on developing projects in TP 1, TP 2 and 11 sub TPs of Dholera SIR which will be on both side of Express Highway near Airport and on the border of Dholera SIR.

Smart Homes mainly deals in Commercial, Industrial and Residential Land and Projects. Our customers are High Net worth Individuals, NRIs from more than 20 countries, multinational companies and its employees from organizations like ISRO, ICICI, SBI, UCO Banks, Army, Navy and Air force.

International businesses that are looking to start their industry in Dholera, Smart Homes provide them end-to-end solutions from land acquisition, required permissions from the government for setting up an industry and residential set up for employees.

To be continued in Dholera Greenfield Smart City – A Trillion Dollar Baby Part 2

Disclaimer: These are my personal views based on my own research and experience of working in Dholera for last 6 years. Views may vary from person to person, so kindly do not form any opinion without doing your own research or due diligence.