Dholera Smart City Invites Large Manufacturers, Aviation, Defense Firms

NEW DELHI:
The biggest upcoming greenfield city in India under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project, Dholera in Gujarat is inviting large manufacturers in aviation, defense, electronics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, heavy engineering, etc. to set up shop there, offering early-bird incentives including heavy discounts on land prices and financial grants and waivers.
The Dholera Industrial City Development Limited (DICDL), the SPV formed by the DMIC Trust and Government of Gujarat to administer the special investment region, outlined the advantages of the proposed industrial zone to global and domestic investor communities at a specially curated event here last evening.
With a total footprint of over 920 sq km, Dholera is the biggest of the eight industrial smart cities being developed in the first phase of the USD 100 bn DMIC project. Infrastructure implementation in Dholera SIR is taking place in a phased manner.
DICDL has committed USD600 million for trunk infrastructure rollout in the activation area. The trunk infrastructure construction of the initial activation area of 22.5 sq. km (roughly 5,600 acres) is about 40% complete with underground utilities and roads taking shape. It will be ready for business in September 2019.
“Building Dholera from ground-up has been a very challenging experience. Issues have been addressed using the best engineered solutions. Dholera’s design and construction is world class and will become the role model for all future cities in India” said Alkesh Kumar Sharma, MD and CEO, DMICDC.
Land allocation for anchor tenants has begun in Dholera and DICDL is especially targeting manufacturers in Defense and Aviation MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations), heavy engineering; machinery and auto components; electronics and pharmaceuticals, given that it is offering some of the biggest industrial parcels in all of South East Asia, eminently suited for large production facilities.
Plots are available ranging from five hectares to 100 hectares in contiguous land parcels that can be aggregated to up to 750 hectares. The DICDL is offering fabulous discount on land prices for anchor tenants and a host of other incentives including tax waivers, skilling support for companies, highly competitive prices on utilities and ‘smart’ infrastructure that will be fully connected and managed through ICT networks, besides the attraction of well-planned transport networks and residential spaces conducive for ‘green and sustainable’ living.
“For businesses we want in Dholera, we are looking beyond temporary attractions such as subsidies and short-term promotions; our goal is to provide them through world-class infrastructure, built-in technology and policy support the opportunity to set up industrial units hassle-free, and have the lowest production costs of any manufacturing region over the longer term,” said Jai Prakash Shivahare, MD, DICDL.
DICDL has set up a transparent e-Land allotment system & single window mechanism for investors in Dholera, promising “ease of doing business” as a top administrative priority.
Dholera also has several strategic advantages as a potential aerotropolis — an aviation-centered economic zone — and a defense and aerospace production hub. It will have its own airport to be built over 1,426 hectares of land in Navagam Village (about 7 kms away) and connected to state capital Ahmedabad through a proposed Express Highway and a Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS).
The greenfield international airport, besides becoming a logistics hub for DSIR, will also help manage spillover traffic from the existing Ahmedabad International Airport in the future. It will also help handle the increasing traffic from the nearby cities of Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Nadiad and Anand.
European aviation giant Airbus has already signed a “Strategic Partnership” MoU, advising the DICDL on setting up an Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing cluster in DSIR.
India currently does not have an MRO facility on a large scale and airline companies have to rely on overseas hubs to service their aircraft at extra cost and effort. The proposed Aviation Zone and MRO facility would consist of aircraft parts manufacturing, flight training institutes etc. and MRO services and operations like body, engine, paint and airframe.
The defense cluster will be vital to realizing India’s goal of indigenization and self-reliance under the Make in India mission. Other sectors that the SIR is looking to attract include IT, Electronics, Bio-Technology and Food Processing.
Once the anchor tenants are in place, and construction on the production facilities take off, the city is expected to quickly take shape setting sights on becoming a global model for highly planned, model smart cities.
“Although Dholera is principally an industrial township, recognising that eventually workers and their families will settle here, we have planned for it to be one of the most livable cities in the world, with carefully designed neighborhoods, social infrastructure, green transport and mobility, right down to the urban aesthetics,” said  Jagdish Salgaonkar, Program Director, Dholera.
Already, Dholera has an IGBC green city “Platinum” rating — one of the first few cities in the world and the first greenfield city in India to achieve it — with 100% treatment and reuse of waste water; 100% collection of solid waste with no public dumping of waste; storm water management and rain water harvesting.
The ICT work includes state-of-the-art design for City Integrated Operations Centre, E-Governance, City applications (including analytics), Data Centre, City-wide network and City dashboards.