There couldn’t be a stronger reaction to the rapidly rising urbanization than creation of 100 smart cities.
Yes, we are talking about the making of 100 cities in India that shall be smart in vision, architecture, amenities, planning, housing, technology and everything that is required to uplift the standard of living and accommodate the rising population in the urban areas of the country. Dholera smart city revolution is being led by a modest city in the state of Gujarat:Dholera smart city.
Dholera smart city, a small village located in Dhanduka Taluka of Ahmedabad district is strategically ideal for becoming India’s first smart city. Its nearness to the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the enormous area that the city shall cover makes it an ideal place for becoming the upcoming global trading and manufacturing hub. Dholera spans 920 square kilometers which is spread across 22 villages in Gujarat. The Dholera SIR city has been planned as twice the size of Mumbai and six times that of Shanghai. Besides being massive in size, Dholera smart city is inspired by Shanghai and shall be built on similar lines.
The other cities that shall be developed as smart cities are spread across various states with Uttar Pradesh bagging in the maximum number (13). Other states that follow are Tamil Nadu (12), Maharashtra (10), Madhya Pradesh (7) and Gujarat and Karnataka at 6 each. Of these 100 cities, 20 smart cities shall be developed at the first go while 40 cities shall be selected in the following two consecutive years. The first round of smart cities include Bhubaneshwar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Vishakhapatnam, Solapur, Davangere, Indore, New Delhi, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belagavi, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana and Bhopal.
The 20 smart cities are under planning state and master plan for the same is yet to be finalized. Dholera SIR is ahead of them in this aspect and many others too. While the first round of smart cities has been allotted Rs. 2,000 crore each for development, Dholera SIR has been sanctioned Rs, 5,400 crores (approx.) towards development work. Rs. 2,784 crores has been allotted for development of trunk infrastructure project on 22.5 square kilometers activation area, Rs. 1,700 crores (appx) has been allotted towards development of Dholera international airport and Rs. 1,700 crores (appx) has been allotted to L&T for construction of roads and services in the city. Funding through alternate channels is also anticipated in large volumes in the Dholera City. Various multinational corporate houses and foreign investors have explicitly expressed their desire to invest heavily in the smart city.
Dholera Smart city is indeed the first and so far the best solution provided to the impending issue of urbanization.