Dholera taluka and the Bhal region
The land, coast and setting of the SIR
This page covers the setting, and why geography matters here. Every figure below carries the source it came from and the date it was recorded.
Dholera sits in the Bhal, the flat coastal plain along the Gulf of Khambhat in Ahmedabad district, and that physical setting shapes both the opportunity and the engineering challenge.
| Taluka | Dholera, Ahmedabad district |
|---|---|
| Region | the Bhal coastal plain |
| Coast | Gulf of Khambhat |
| Terrain | flat, low-lying, tidal influence |
- SIR
- Special Investment Region. A large area the Gujarat government has set aside for industry under its own 2009 law, with its own planning authority instead of the usual local one.
- TP scheme
- Town planning scheme. The authority pools all the land in one area, lays out the roads and services, then hands each owner back a smaller but serviced plot.
- CRZ
- Coastal Regulation Zone. Coastal land where central rules limit what can be built.
- DSIRDA
- The statutory authority that plans and regulates Dholera SIR, in place of a municipal corporation.
- DICDL
- The company that actually builds Dholera. Gujarat holds 51% of it and the central government holds 49% through the NICDC Trust.
- NICDC
- The central agency that runs India's industrial corridor programme, which Dholera sits inside.
- DMIC
- The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, the national industrial corridor programme Dholera is a node of.
The setting
The SIR was formed from a cluster of villages in Dholera taluka on the western coast of the Gulf of Khambhat, on flat, low-lying land known as the Bhal. Dholera SIR is planned over about 920 sq km, of which roughly 580 sq km is developable and about 422 sq km is designated for urban development across six town-planning schemes (TP1 to TP6). Around one-third of the developable land falls in the Coastal Regulation Zone. The flatness makes large-scale planning and road-laying straightforward, but the tidal, low-lying coastal character means drainage and the Coastal Regulation Zone are genuine design constraints, which is why about a third of developable land falls in the CRZ. Confirmed
Why geography matters here
Understanding the Bhal explains several things at once: why the region had large contiguous land available for a greenfield city, why water management and drainage feature so heavily in the plan, and why the coast is both an asset and a regulatory limit. It also places Dholera in a landscape shared with Lothal, Velavadar and the region's wetlands. Confirmed
This article follows Dholerapedia's sourcing standard: every figure is tagged Confirmed (government or official), Reported (press or trade) or Unverified (broker), and dated. Anything framed as a future event is labelled a target until a government source confirms it. Where a fact is not reliably available, we say so rather than estimate. See the methodology.
Key facts
These are the core facts for dholera taluka and the bhal region, written out in full. Each one comes from a source listed at the foot of this page and is current as at the review month.
- Taluka: Dholera, Ahmedabad district.
- Region: the Bhal coastal plain.
- Coast: Gulf of Khambhat.
- Terrain: flat, low-lying, tidal influence.
Dholera SIR in one paragraph
Dholera SIR is a planned industrial city covering about 920 sq km, of which roughly 422 sq km is marked for urban development. That land is being delivered as six town planning schemes, spread over roughly three decades. DSIRDA is the authority that plans and regulates the region, and DICDL is the company that builds it, owned 51% by Gujarat and 49% by the central government through the NICDC Trust. Dholera is the flagship node of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. That is the frame every entry here sits in. The fuller version is in What Dholera SIR is and the master plan.
References
- DSIRDA Sanctioned Development Plan (project profile).
- Ahmedabad district geographic references.
This is a reference, so it is written to be checked rather than believed. Each figure is marked Confirmed when a government or official record says it, Reported when the press or trade said it, and Unverified when only a seller says it. Each one carries a date, because Dholera keeps moving and a number that was right last year may not be right now. Anything still in the future is written as a target until a government source confirms it happened, and where a fact is not reliably available we say so instead of guessing.
None of this is legal, tax or investment advice, and no government source promises that land here will rise in value. If you are looking at one specific plot, treat everything on this page as background and confirm that parcel's own GUJRERA registration, title and price yourself before you pay. If a figure here has gone out of date, tell us on the contact page and we will correct it. All the figures gathered in one place are in Dholera in numbers, and the full method is on the methodology page.