Dholera - Ahmedabad Expressway: India’s First High Speed Integrated Multi Modal Corridor To Be Completed By January 2024

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari today (19 January) inspected the progress of package-1 of the under-construction Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway in Gujarat.

This 109 km long greenfield corridor is being developed at a total cost of Rs 4,200 crore.

It will act as an important route to connect Ahmedabad with Dholera’s several special investment zones.

Ahmedabad - Dholera Expressway would enable high speed travel between Ahmedabad and Dholera and reduce the travel time to about one hour from the present two and half hours at present. It will also provide direct connectivity to the airport at Dholera.

This expressway is planned with a width of 120 metres in which 90 metres is for the expressway and the remaining 30 metres is left for a railway corridor to be built in future.

The expressway route connects Sarkhej via Dholera International Airport at Navagam and Sardar Patel Ring Road near Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR). Thus the expressway will also prove helpful in accelerating industrial activities in Ahmedabad and Dholera.

Interacting with the media after inspecting the construction site, union minister Gadkari said that they are aiming to complete the expressway project by January 2024.

He said that Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway is India’s first high speed integrated multi modal corridor with integration of both expressway and railway.

It can be expected that this integration of rail line into expressway can pave the way for an RRTS corridor connecting Ahmedabad with Bhavnagar via Dholera in future.

The Rise of Dholera

Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) is a greenfield industrial city under construction on Gujarat’s Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) stretch.

DSIR is poised to be the biggest Greenfield Smart City in India with an area of 920 sq.km. It has been divided into 12 zones and six sub-centres. The region boasts of residential area with minimum 200 square metre plots and 12m internal road.

For non-polluting industries, the minimum sublet area is 1,000 square metre with 18 metre internal road. A 1,000 acre dedicated special education zone is a unique feature of the city. DSIR also plans to have dedicated areas for public utility, recreation, IT and knowledge centres, logistic, sports activity, and City Centre. The city permits a high access corridor for multi-storey building up to 50 storeys and 180 m height with a FSI (Floor Space Index) of 5.

This developing greenfield city is also getting an airport as the union government in June 2022 approved the development of Phase I of new greenfield Airport at Dholera in Gujarat at an estimated cost of Rs 1,305 crore.

Dholera Airport is set to get passenger and cargo traffic from Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) and is expected to become a major cargo hub to serve the industrial region.

Being located at an aerial distance of 80 km from Ahmedabad airport, this new airport could also serve as a second airport to Ahmedabad.