Work begins on ICT infrastructure for DMIC's Dholera Smart City

Wipro has been awarded the contract for ICT consultancy work

Implementation of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) plans for Dholera, a major greenfield Smart City coming up in Phase I of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project has begun. Top officials of the DMIC Development Corporation (DMICDC) and Dholera Special Investment Regional Development Authority (DSIRDA) reviewed the detailed plans for the ICT infrastructure.

"Dholera's ICT Infrastructure will be a game changer in terms of smart cities function worldwide. We intend it to set an example for efficient, technology-enabled administration of a city, infrastructure linkages and quality of life for residents," said Alkesh Kumar Sharma, the CEO and Managing Director of DMICDC.

Wipro Ltd, which has been awarded the contract for ICT consultancy work, outlined the state-of-the-art design for City Integrated Operations Centre, E-Governance, City applications (including analytics), Data Centre, City-wide network and City dashboards.

One of eight industrial regions planned in the first phase of the DMIC project, Dholera is being developed in a phased manner and is expected to be functional by 2019 with several manufacturing units and a population of around 100,000 people.

Ajay Bhadoo, CEO, DICDL, said: "It is truly a landmark project. This marks the start of building 'smart components' of Dholera."

Since the entire trunk infrastructure cannot be implemented in a one go, a phased approach has been adopted for Dholera and an Activation Area of 22.5 sq. km has been identified which would act as catalyst for further investments and will provide a base for taking up development of the remaining area.

Dholera's ICT network will be a City Integration Operation Centre (CIOC) which will synchronies all functions, including traffic management, safety and security, emergency response, utility services, telecommunications and civic administration.

Further, for better law enforcement and rapid response, the city will have integrated with regional and national data bases including the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS).

Moreover, a 'Citizens Interaction Center' will be set up to provide one stop service and will have standardized processes to enable civic authorities to follow regulatory framework, manage approvals, budgets and provide host of other citizen services.

According to Bhadoo, Dholera will have e-Governance systems and city applications for local administration and facilitation, transport, healthcare, education, urban planning, city asset management and citizen's portal.

City-wide sensors and highly-secure, scalable networks will collect information, while dashboards will combine real time data from various sources to help in planning.

Dholera will use analytics for efficient budgeting, to determine which areas to target for improvement of infrastructure amenities etc. The city will have special process applications for water management; to assess quality, detect overflows and reduce wastage. It will provide electricity 24X7 and will use ICT to manage power usage and lower costs.

With a total proposed project area of approximately 920 sq. km, Dholera is a node strategically located near the industrial cities of Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Bhavnagar.