920 sq km on the Gulf of Khambhat
What is Dholera?
A greenfield city being built from zero, about 100 km south west of Ahmedabad. Not a suburb that grew outward, but a region that was surveyed, zoned and serviced before anyone moved in.
The short version
Planned first, built second.
Most Indian cities grew and then tried to add infrastructure. Dholera was drawn on paper, sanctioned, and then had roads, power, water and drainage put in the ground before the first building went up. That reversal is the whole idea, and it is why the region gets talked about the way it does.
- Region
- Dholera Special Investment Region, known as Dholera SIR
- Total area
- 920 sq km, which is larger than Singapore at 728 sq km
- Developable
- 422.42 sq km, sanctioned across six town planning schemes in October 2013
- Distance
- About 100 km south west of Ahmedabad
- Villages
- 22, brought into a single planning framework
- Planned for
- A resident population of about 2 million
- Land split
- Around 60% green and open space, 40% urban development
- First phase
- The Activation Area, 22.5 sq km, roughly 5,600 acres
- Master planner
- Halcrow, appointed in 2009, with core engineering design by AECOM
- Authority
- DSIRDA, with DICDL as the development company, Gujarat 51% and the Government of India 49%
- Corridor
- A node on the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor
Why here
The location was chosen, not inherited.
Three things put Dholera where it is, and none of them are accidental.
The corridor
Dholera sits on the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, a 1,500 km industrial spine connecting 24 regions. Dholera is its flagship node, which is why central and state money both point at it.
The coast
The Gulf of Khambhat runs along the eastern edge. A sea port is sanctioned, and Kandla, Mundra and Pipavav are all on the same western seaboard.
The land
Flat, low value, largely uninhabited salt flat and scrub. Easy to acquire at scale and easy to plan on a grid, which is exactly what a greenfield city needs and what an existing city cannot offer.
The history
Lothal, about 15 km away, was a Harappan dockyard around 2400 BCE and one of the earliest ports in the world. The National Maritime Heritage Complex is being built there on 400 acres.
Dholera is not a township on the edge of a city. It is a region the size of a small country, with its own authority, its own regulations and its own development company.
What is there now
Built, building and drawn.
The single most useful distinction anyone can give you about Dholera, and the one most sellers skip.
Already in the ground
Still being built or planned
Read next
Where to go from here.
Dholera SIR
The authority, the town planning schemes, the land use plan and what governs a plot.
ConnectivityInfrastructure
The expressway, the airport, the metro, the port and the freight corridor, with honest status.
The moneyDholera investment
Why people buy here, what they take on, and the checks to run first.
LandPlots and land
Residential, commercial and bulk parcels, and which suits which buyer.
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