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The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) traces its roots back to December 2006 when a MoU was signed between Vice Minister, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Government of Japan and Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), of India. A Final Project Concept was presented to both the Prime Ministers during Japanese Premier Abe’s visit to India in August 2007.
The multi-modal high axle load Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) between Delhi and Mumbai will cover an overall length of 1,483 km and passing through six states—U.P., NCR of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. It will have end terminals at Dadri in the NCR of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai. Distribution of length of the corridor indicates that Rajasthan (39 percent) and Gujarat (38 percent) together constitute 77percent of the total length of the alignment of freight corridor, followed by Haryana and Maharashtra (10 percent each) and Uttar Pradesh and NCR of Delhi having 1.5 percent of total length each.
This DFC envisages a high-speed connectivity for high axle load wagons (25 ton) of double stacked container trains supported by high power locomotives. The Delhi-Mumbai leg of the Golden Quadrilateral NH also runs almost parallel to the freight corridor. About 180 million people, 14 percent of the population, will be affected by the corridor’s development.

Smart cities

While the main purpose of the DFC is to move goods from one place to another, a band of 150 km (influence region) has been chosen on both sides of the freight corridor to be developed as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. The vision for DMIC is to create a strong economic base in this band with globally competitive environment and state-of-the-art infrastructure to activate local commerce, enhance foreign investments, real-estate investments and attain sustainable development. In addition to the influence region, DMIC would also include development of requisite feeder rail/road connectivity to hinterland/markets and select ports along the western coast.
Urbanization at this rate and scale could lead to unprecedented consumption and extreme stress on our natural resources. Long term sustainability will be the biggest challenge. DMIC now plans to create industrial cities which will be benchmarked against the best new generation industrial cities in the world with the master planning for these cities being done with certain key sustainable developmental concepts.
Developed by some of the biggest names in master planning, these cities focus on reduction of commuting needs for the workforce, a polycentric structure with multiple CBDs and industrial zones, integration of land uses encouraging mixed-use and affordable workers housing located near the industrial zones.
The cities will have neighborhoods distributed around high access mass transit corridors where cycling and pedestrian modes would be encouraged over cars. These cities will recycle and reuse water and solid wastes and will be energy sufficient through use of renewables.

Dholera

Dholera is a sleepy village some 110 km from Ahmedabad. The DSIRDA covers a substantial amount of land totaling 903 sq km and encompasses 22 villages, making it the largest investment node proposed under the DMIC. The site is strategically located between Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. The existing population is about 37,000, inhabiting small segments. Agriculture is their primary occupation, although the land is of poor quality. Land values are, therefore, relatively low.
A self-governed global center of economic activities, Dholera is expected to have an empowered mechanism for administration, autonomy in operations, flexibility in decision-making and freedom in planning. In order to minimize the use of scarce resources, the city is to be kept compact. This would mean travel distances are minimized and the lengths of utility networks are kept as short as possible, thereby reducing capital and running costs.
According to plans, the average maximum distance between an industrial area and the nearest residential area should not be more than 3km. Local farmers tell us that almost everyone has sold off their lands about a year back but they have not seen anything happen since then. One change as expected has been the rise in consumption of products like fridge, TV, motorbikes and cars. Toyota Fortuners have suddenly found place in makeshift garages of farmers and it is evident much of the money has been spent rather than being invested or saved. Even from banking parameters, only two banks are operational in the area and unlike areas like Sanand, where banks have made a beeline, Dholera is still off the radar.
It is, however, not that nothing has happened. A new police outpost and new police lines have come up. The local police say they know something big is going to happen and that a big project is coming up but have very little idea of when it will start and what would be the end result. Nearby a big signboard states the existence of a Dholera port 21 km away. However, after 8 km of drive on the newly laid tarmac, the road disappears with little or no signs of port. Locals say the Adani Group was developing the port but it has stopped work and the port will not happen. They are now hopeful that the DMIC will step in and keep its promises.

Infra work

To cater to energy needs, the DMICDC is setting up its first solar power plant of 50 MW near Jodhpur in Rajasthan based on photo voltaic technology and a similar facility is being planned at Dholera. Gas-based power plants with capacity of 1,000-1,200 MW each are also coming up in Ville Bhagad and Indapur in Maharashtra, Chainpura at Madhya Pradesh, Vaghel and Rajpur-Shahpur in Gujarat and Saag Doongri in Rajasthan.
On the connectivity front, a railway link from Dholera to Bhimnath to Botad is envisaged and the Ministry of Railways has agreed to conduct the technical studies.
At Rewari, the Palwal passenger link is expected to play a part while a spur to Dighi Port from Central/Konkan Railway is also in the pipeline. At the Logistics Park at Karla, Maharashtra a spur from Malwali (8 km) is being planned and at Pithampur, the early completion of the ongoing Indore Dahod BG and Indore Chhota Udaipur gauge conversion projects will fit in with the DMIC plans.
On terms of road connectivity at places, for the Dighi port, widening of NH 17, Mumbai-Goa Highway is planned while for Aurangabad, NH 211 will be widened. Nashik will see widening of NH-50.

Emerging projects

The pre-feasibility reports have been submitted by the Japanese consortia for BRTs and electric bus, water supply management system and waste water treatment systems.
There are a number of opportunities which are also seen in the gas-based cogeneration (power and heat), industrial solid waste management/incineration, eco-logistics system, PV (roof top, 2-5 MW) and smart metering system.
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) of 10 MW and centralized control for utilities and public safety are also areas worth looking at. Apart from widening of NH-50, Uttar Pradesh will witness six-laning of the national highway from Ghaziabad to Moradabad. The present eight-laning of the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway will play a major role.

Tags:
Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Dholera, Gujarat, Ministry of Economy, Public Private Partnerships, Trade and Industry