Dholera SIR, India’s Greenfield Smart City leading in sustainable development 

Dholera SIR is India’s first Greenfield Industrial Smart City to achieve a platinum rating by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). Phase 1, called the Activation area, comprises 22.54 Sq Km out of the total 920 Sq Km. The Activation area is ready to accommodate industry and citizens, with more than 72 km of road and utility network on both sides of the roads. It comprises allocated areas for industries, residential, mixed-use, recreation, social infrastructure, and tourism. Land allotment for industries has already begun for contiguous land parcels ranging in size from 1 Acre to 330 Acres and more.

Dholera SIR will also play a major role in ushering in the development of the Semiconductor and Display industry in India with a Semicon City within SIR. ReNew Power, one of India’s largest renewable energy park developers has taken 100 acres of land and has started phase-wise construction of their solar module and cell manufacturing plant. Along with this, TATA Chemicals Ltd will be setting up a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant and has taken 126 acres of land. Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd is set to establish fuel stations and EV charging stations. To meet the power requirements of the industries, Torrent Power has established a power distribution network in Dholera.

Dholera will offer 360-degree connectivity via Air, Road, Rail and Sea. The world-class 4-lane expressway connecting Dholera with Ahmedabad is under construction and is expected to be completed by the year 2024. The right of way has been acquired for the construction of Metro rail as well in one common corridor. The multi-modal transport system will have a regional goods corridor, public transport corridor, internal transport, Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), and Mass Rapid Transport (MRT). Dholera International Airport, a Greenfield project under implementation, is under construction, and work for phase 1 is already in progress. The airport is expected to be operational by 2025-26, which will initially cater to 3,00,000 passengers and handle more than 20,000 tonnes of cargo approximately per annum. With a 6.5 Km canal with a stormwater management system, citizens will enjoy recreational and leisure activities at the Canal front.

Providing a strong backbone to the sustainable design of Dholera is its Smart water management system. Along with the stormwater canal, this robust system features a water treatment plant (WTP) of 50 MLD in Phase 1, a Master Balancing Reservoir (MBR), various Elevated Service Reservoirs in the activation area, a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) of 10 MLD and a Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) of 20 MLD capacity in Phase 1.  

The 4400MW Solar Park project at Dholera is set to change the energy generation game of the country and will help in achieving the national goal of green energy generation of 250 GW by 2030. For the development of the solar park, 1000MW has been allotted to GPCL for implementation; out of this, 300 MW has already been commissioned by TATA Power Company Limited. The power evacuation to the grid is operational, which is laid down by GETCO, a State power transmission company.