U - City : Dholera

Dholera would be much more than a smart city in the days to come. In its latest report Gujarat Industrial Development Board (GIDB) has envisioned Dholera to be a ubiquitous city —called the U-City where life would be controlled centrally by a well laid network of sensors and would be developed into a high-tech urban space. The special investment region spread over approximately 800 sq km would be one of the nodal regions along the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). The U-city concept in Dholera basically looks forward to integrating city operation centres right from civic, transportation, environment, security and even one’s office. This technology would be indigenously designed for Dholera SIR according to GIDB officials.
“The U-infrastructure uses sensors networks to communicate with wired or wireless computer embedded in personal devices like mobile phones, buildings or any part of urban infrastructure. This allows ubiquitous communication of person-to-person, person-to-object and object-to-object interaction even though computers and devices are invisible to users,” says a senior GIDB official. The U-city provides an opportunity where one may not have to, for instance, access information without using the internet, while electronic devices share data automatically without being asked to do it by the user of the technology. The U-city infrastructure has a common core service followed by specialised services. It consists of U-administration, U-facility management, U-transportation, U-environmental service and a U-waterfront too,” adds the GIDB official.
A certain degree of the integration of services has been done in South Korea, Japan, and host of other cities in the world. This includes the London Urban Village, Koeln Media Park, Copenhagen crossroads, Montreal industrial area, Shanghai Financial, HK Cyber Port, and Dalian. Though in these specialised regions the U-city concept exists in bits and pieces. Dholera would be a class apart. The plan was accepted in March this year. we are now looking for investors for the city,” adds the GIDB official.

FEATURES OF U-CITY
U-waterfront
A service that provides visual presentations such as waterscreen or advanced streetlights, creating a fascinating virtual night view like at harbours, waterfront restaurants and theme bridges
U-transportation service
Converges existing road, vehicle, traffic signs, with IT, telecommunications, electronics, control and other ubiquitous technologies, allowing efficient traffic facility and ease traffic congestion
U-administration
A service that improves the overall city civic management by providing information and monitoring services for public administration
U-facility management
Builds integrated and remote operation service system for the city infrastructure and provides prompt correspondence system through real-time disaster and safety accident detection