The first two smart cities of India are being built in the state of Gujarat – Dholera SIR and GIFT city. This is sure to take Gujarat to the world and bring glory to the Indian state.

Dholera SIR is being built as a world class city with best in class amenities. It is situated a 100 kilometers from Ahmedabad and boasts of being the first smart city of India.

The important features and developments in this city are mentioned below:-

• 920 square kilometers area of which more than 500 square kilometers shall be the developable area.
• It shall be a special node in Gujarat for the DMIC project giving further impetus to the project.
• Being developed as a global manufacturing hub.
• It shall also be developed as a multi modal transport hub owing to its closeness to the Northern states of India.
• Dholera SIR shall be excellently connected to important cities of Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar through a 6 lane highway. A metro rail shall also link it to Ahmedabad.
• Development of international airport at Dholera has been approved by relevant authorities.
• Nearness to the port gives added advantage to lure in foreign investments.
• Trunk infrastructure project has begun and shall be shortly completed.
• Infrastructure components shall include roads, utilities, potable water supply, hospital, sanitation, waste treatment plant, desalination plant, hospitality and tourism amongst many others.
• Rs. 3,000 crores has been sanctioned by central government for development work. Rest has to be raised through PPP model and foreign investments.
• Dholera SIR is divided into 6 town planning scheme of which town planning scheme 1 & 2 sanctioned in October 2012.
• The project is divided in three phases and each shall take about a decade to complete.
• Halcrow has been appointed for planning the city and IBM and CISCO shall be responsible for Dholera’s development.

GIFT city (Gujarat International Finance Tech City)
GIFT city is located 12 kilometers from the Ahmedabad airport and shall emerge as an international finance and technological hub that might soon replace Mumbai. Spread over 890 acres of land, the city’s important features are mentioned below:-

• The city shall consist of 110 skyscrapers and 20,000 residential units. It shall also contain many commercial units.
• GIFT city is expected to generate employment for 10 lakh people – 5 lakh shall be directly employed mainly in financial and IT sector and 5 lakhs shall be indirectly employed.
• About 1 lakh people shall live in this city
• The city shall have a splendid metro connectivity. All commercial buildings shall be linked to metro with none being farther than 500 meters from the metro station.
• GIFT shall be the commercial hub of Gujarat and shall consist of hotels, shopping malls, hospitals and educational centres. It shall be a preferred venue for MNC’s to set up their corporate offices.
• About 60% of the area shall be green area and comprise of parks and other green developments.
• The city shall have 24 hours water supply, waste water management, 24 hours electricity, sewage management and underground utility tunnel for waste disposal system. This tunnel shall use plasma technology to generate electricity out of the city’s waste.

Dholera SIR and GIFT cities shall set a benchmark for the next 100 smart cities and shall certainly be the pride of Gujarat.