Rampur v/s Dholera!
Uttar Pradesh v/s Gujarat!
Population of 3.25 lacs v/s 2,500!
Area of 84 sq. km v/s 920 sq.km!
500 crore funds v/s 3,000 crores
One amongst 100 smart cities v/s Modi’s Dream project
The city of Rampur is located in Uttar Pradesh with wine-making,
sugar processing, textile weaving, and the manufacture of agricultural
implements being the main industries based on which residents earn their
income. It is directly connected to few northern cities of India through
railways and road. It was established centuries ago and is one of the Muslim
majority district as per 2001 census.
Dholera is a small village close to Dhanduka village in
Ahmedabad district of Gujarat. Major income for residents comes from irrigation
and farming, though the land is largely affected due to salinity causing major
portions of it becoming non-fertile. Dholera Smart City
is the first smart city and the dream child of Mr. Modi, envisaged way before
he became the Prime Minister of India. It boasts of excellent connectivity both
locally and internationally through six lane highway, international airport,
port, metro and railways.
Dholera Smart City enjoys the following edge over Rampur and thus is a
better and smarter city to reside and invest in:-
·
City size – Dholera is being
developed as an Indian city that cannot go unnoticed in terms of size.
Encompassing an area of 920 square kilometers, the city shall be twice the size
of Mumbai and six times the size of Shanghai. This shall positively influence
the multinationals and foreign investors who are looking forward to set up
their industries and manufacturing units in the SIR. Rampur is one tenth the
size of Dholera and shall not be as attractive for investors.
·
Global manufacturing hub –
Dholera is being developed as a global manufacturing hub. Its nearness to the
DMIC corridor works much in favor and make companies consider Dholera as a
serious investment option. Rampur does not enjoy this feature making it
difficult for companies to invest in the city.
·
Property prices - The price
of property in Dholera Smart City is much
cheaper than that in Rampur. Thus an investors who buy a piece of land in
Dholera today and construct a property on it shall attract much higher returns
to those who invest in Rampur. Dholera probably has the cheapest land available
amongst the 100 smart cities making it a very interesting option for commercial
users and also for those who seek to invest in residential properties.
·
Progress in Development – Dholera
is the first smart city of India. Therefore its development is far ahead than
that of Rampur. Rampur is at a very nascent stage and the master plan for the
city is yet to be laid out. This shall then be followed by approvals and
sanctioning of funds. Rs. 96 core per year (for 5 years) has been allotted for
development of Rampur. On the contrary, Dholera has been sanctioned Rs. 3,000
crore which is being used for development of trunk infrastructure component.
The planning has been completed many years ago and approval for construction of
Town Planning Scheme 1 and Scheme 2 has been received for Dholera.
All the above points go a long way in narrating that Dholera Smart City shall be far better developed than
Rampur and probably become the fastest developing smart city of India.
