HCC plans waterfront city in Dholera

Hindustan Construction Co is planning to build a Water Front City at Dholera in 2011. The project will come up in the proposed special investment region (SIR) at Dholera. The company plans to invest Rs 40,000 crore in the project in a phased manner. “The city will come up over 4,000-5,000 acres. We have prepared the master plan for the project… we are quite confident we will be there by next year. Currently, we are discussing site approvals,” said Rajgopal Nogja, president, HCC Real Estate & Lavasa Corporation. Dholera falls in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) influence area and Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB), the nodal agency for Dholera SIR, is expected to give the approval to the company for site options soon. The city will be modelled on the concept of India’s first planned hill city being developed near Pune by Lavasa Corporation, a subsidiary of HCC. Both Lavasa and Water Front City are based on a new concept, which “brings together residential and commercial spaces within walking distance of each other, facilitating connectivity, promoting diversity and creating environmental sustainability”. The company signed an MoU with the Gujarat government in 2009 to develop the Water Front City at Dholera. Earlier this year, the company announced that it received an extension of two years for the MoU. A second MoU had been signed with the Narmada Water Resources, Water Supply and Kalpasar Department in 2009, for developing three water pipeline projects worth Rs 1,500 crore.