Dholera is a Preferred Destination Than Kavarrati - Why?

Kavarrati, the capital of the Lakshadweep islands, has recently become a top tourist destination thanks to its immaculate white sand beaches. The city has done well for itself, with a literacy rate of 88.6% and only 3% of households living in poverty (according to the 2001 Census). Recently, Kavarrati was named one of the 100 smart cities that will be built in India. Let's compare the future possibilities and opportunities for investors between this lovely tropical city and India's first smart city.

India's Biggest/Largest Greenfield, Dholera India's smart city is the country's first of its kind to be built. Dholera, which covers an area of 920 square kilometres in Gujarat, is close to Ahmedabad. The first smart city in the nation is large, and the government's goal for it, combined with its size, has greatly accelerated its growth and drawn in international investors. Not just for the travelers, the demand for residential projects in dholera sir has also seen a considerable rise. Here are a few simple comparisons that will show how the two cities differ and explain why Dholera is more cunning than Kavarrati.

Dholera has obtained funds of Rs. 3,000 crore for the construction of a trunk infrastructure project, Rs. 1,700 crore for the improvement of roads, and another Rs. 1,700 crore for the construction of an international airport. The initial funding for Dholera and associated projects has now been raised to a total of Rs. 5,400 crores. Such an outstanding beginning is luring investments from all over, which will hasten the city's development even more. Kavarrati, on the other hand, will only be eligible for Rs. 2,000 crores (appx). As a result, Dholera will expand more quickly and more effectively than Kavarrati, and it will have greater facilities and infrastructure.

Compared to owning a home in Kavarrati, buying a house or dholera SIR residential plots is considerably less expensive. Additionally, the extensive business activity in Dholera will help the area's economy grow at a rate that is significantly faster than Kavarrati's, which will help Dholera's real estate market in the long run. As a result, Dholera has become an investor's top choice. An investor can readily purchase land for less money and profit from greater and quicker property appreciation.

Compared to Kavarrati, Dholera Smart City will have better connectivity to adjacent cities, all of India, and even the rest of the world. It will be connected to Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar by a six-lane road, and to the rest of the world by the Dholera international airport. The city will also be connected to the port, a high-speed metro rail system, and an extended railway route. On the other hand, only passenger ships and boat transfers provide access to the advanced city of Kavarrati. For Kavarrati to increase its potential as a favoured investment zone, it still has a long way to go in terms of national and international connectivity.

Dholera has a good start, and the federal government's push will ensure that it develops into a smarter city—the smartest of the 100 waiting cities!

Dholera - making a mark in the concept of land pooling

India is building world-class infrastructure quickly in an effort to become a centre for global manufacturing in the post-covid era. An urban utopia of the twenty-first century, the greenfield project of Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) is located around 100 kilometres southwest of Ahmedabad in Gujarat. The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), which has been described as "India's most desirable site for manufacturing and industrial development," would feature Dholera as its first smart city. 

The rapid industrialization of new cities in neoliberal India is a trend that includes Dholera Smart City. The Gujarat government created the Dholera Special Investment Region in the middle of 2009 by relocating 22 villages near the Gulf of Khambhat (DSIR). The exclusive technocratic method of urbanisation promised by the smart city guarantees no annoyances in regular urban living. 39,300 people live in the 920 km2 area, which was established by the Gujarat Special Investment Region (SIR) Act of 2009. This population is primarily rural.

The Dholera example exemplifies a strategy that uses rule of law enforcement as the main tool to pursue neoliberal urbanism with the consent of private players. The state government transforms rural agricultural land into smart city construction by using town planning law.

The Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act (GTPUDA), passed in 1976, circumvents national regulation in India's Land Acquisition Act by extending the definition of land needed for public use to include land needed for town planning, development plans, or infrastructure projects. Land taken for public use is not compensated for under the GTPUDA.

Similar to this, the Gujarat Special Investment Region (SIR) Act was passed in 2009 to broaden the definition of "Public Purpose" when it comes to land acquisition for new projects like GIFT and Dholera. The 2009 SIR Statute has a policy mechanism for land pooling that gets around the "land issue" of the current Indian land acquisition act, as described in the India Infrastructure Report (2009).

Through the use of a land pooling mechanism, the regional government is allowed to purchase any parcel of property, including agricultural land, and then reallocate the purchased area to fresh urban development master plans. SIR Act does not contain compensation for land taken for "public purpose," similar to Gujarat Town Planning Act.

The land pooling policy clause is employed in Dholera to amass land so that a brand-new township can be built from the ground up. Massive agricultural area is being turned into a greenfield city as part of a regional effort to change the planning paradigm from "involuntary acquisition" to "voluntary participation," encouraging landowners to take part in exercises aimed at nation-building.

The idea of voluntary involvement underpins the land pooling method. A development authority (a state, parastatal, or special purpose corporation) temporarily assembles a group of landowners to plan the development of a region. "The case for compensation does not arise" because there has been no "acquisition" or "transfer of ownership." The development authority then assesses a betterment fee for the area of the land that was renovated with new infrastructure facilities. Construction of physical and social infrastructure as well as land acquisition are actively undertaken by the private sector.

Through continued land grabs, the Dholera Smart City becomes the setting for a new "system of dispossession." The regional state takes enormous, audacious steps in urban planning, criminalises a number of facets of social action, and organises protests against the development of a new industrial town as its main method of establishing its authority. The state is increasingly relying on the rule of law to uphold and legitimise its control over specific people and territory, which excludes those on the edges.