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The Centre is working on setting up mass rapid transit systems to connect upcoming cities along the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor with existing ones. This follows completion of the master planning process of six of the seven smart cities to be built along the corridor.
Mass rapid transit systems are being considered for connecting Ahmedabad to Dholera at an estimated cost of ₹7,000 crore and Bawal to Gurgaon at about ₹20,000 crore to begin with, a DMIC Development Cooperation (DMICDC) official told BusinessLine .
Discussions on a mass rapid transit system connecting Burari to Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, is also under consideration.
“While the funding details of these projects are yet to be worked out, we aim to tap into the Japanese agency – JICA – to get funding for some of these,” the official said.
DMIC is in talks with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for the Burari-IGI airport link as the proposal involves connecting with the Delhi Metro network.
With an objective to expand India’s manufacturing and services base and develop DMIC as a global manufacturing and trading hub, the Centre is working on ‘smart cities’ and converge next generation technologies across infrastructure sectors.
The cities that are being developed in the first phase include Aurangabad Industrial Township; Ahmedabad-Dholera Special Investment Region; Integrated Industrial Township, Greater Noida; Integrated Industrial Township Project at Vikram Udyogpuri, MP; Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Park, Maharashtra; and a Global City in Gurgaon.
Bids invited “DMIC has started inviting bids to set up trunk infrastructure such as roads and other utilities for smaller areas of the proposed cities in Dholera, Shendra-Bidkin, Vikram-Udyogpuri near Ujjain,” the official said.
The Gujarat Government has started work on an expressway project connecting Ahmedabad and Dholera.
While these are inter-city transportation projects, the DMIC has also started working on setting up trunk infrastructure within cities which include roads and power.
This will be done through Government funding, the official added.
After the basic trunk infrastructure is built within the cities, the Centre is hopeful that companies will step in to build the manufacturing units, which will subsequently drive household demand.
In Dholera, DMIC has floated bids for building trunk infrastructure in 22 square kilometre activation area of the proposed industrial city plan of 154 square km.
There are similar plans for the Shendra-Bidkin area, which has a total proposed area of 84 square km, of which work will kick-start on an area of 8.39 square km.
Trunk infrastructure is to be built at an estimated cost of ₹1,040 crore.
Similarly, for the Vikram-Udyogpuri integrated industrial township near Ujjain, the State has already transferred four square km land.
For this special purpose vehicle, DMIC Trust will give out ₹55.93 crore equity to the state SPV, with the State’s equity contribution being in the form of land.
The SPV will then raise ₹373 crore of debt.
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