Yes, Dholera is being built with special technology to handle floods and climate change better than most old cities. The engineers are using a smart ICT-enabled system to make sure the city stays dry even when it rains very hard.
My Fifty Years of Watching Cities Grow
I started looking at land and buildings back in the 1970s. Back then, we did not talk about climate resilience or global warming. We just built houses and hoped the rain would go away. I have seen many cities in India drown during the monsoon because they did not have a plan.
When I first studied the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), I was a bit worried. It is a low place near the sea. If you just build houses there without a plan, the water will come inside. But after fifty years of doing this, I can tell you that Dholera is different. They are not just building roads; they are building a “brain” for the city.
Why Dholera is Built Differently
- The Big Trenches: They are building huge underground channels. In most cities, the dirty water and rain water go in the same pipe. In Dholera, they are separate. This means the pipes won’t get full and overflow into the streets.
- Raising the Ground: The engineers are lifting the level of the land. This is a very old trick I saw used in port towns, but here it is done with advanced topographical mapping.
- The Storm Water Sensor: This is the part that feels like science fiction to an old man like me. There are sensors in the drains. If the water rises too fast, the city “knows” it immediately.
- The Coastal Bund: Because it is near the Gulf of Khambhat, they are building a strong wall or bund to stop the sea from coming in during a storm.
Is it Perfectly Safe?
Nothing is 100 percent safe in nature. I have seen “perfect” buildings fall down. But compared to living in a crowded city where the drains are a hundred years old, Dholera is a much safer bet.
When you look at the Environmental Impact Assessment for this project, you see that they thought about the next hundred years, not just the next five. They know the sea might rise. They know the rain might get heavier.
My Advice to You
If you are looking to put your money here, do not just look at the pretty pictures of tall buildings. Look at the ground. Look at the drainage master plan. A city is only as good as its pipes. I tell my own kids that a house is a pile of bricks, but a city is a system.
Dholera is being built as a system that can breathe and handle the water. It makes me feel good to see a project finally taking the monsoon cycle seriously from day one. I have spent a lifetime watching people lose their life savings because a city flooded. I do not want to see that happen to you.
Check the RERA website and look at the infrastructure updates. You will see that they are finishing the flood control parts first. That is the mark of a smart builder. It is not about the shiny glass on the outside; it is about the safety on the inside.
