If you are looking for a quick answer, the negative reviews about Dholera Smart City mostly focus on the slow speed of building, the lack of people living there, and the fear that it might take decades to see any real profit. It is a massive project, but for a normal person, it feels like looking at a huge desert where someone promised a future paradise.
Why do people complain so much?
I have been tracking real estate in India for over five years now. When I first visited the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR), I saw miles of flat land and very few buildings. It is easy to get excited by fancy 3D videos on YouTube, but when you stand on the ground, reality hits you differently. Here are the main reasons people write bad reviews:
- The Ghost Town Feeling: If you drive there today, you won’t see malls or big schools. You see roads and streetlights, but no people. People hate waiting. Most buyers want a house they can live in next year, but Dholera is a twenty-year plan.
- The Land is Low: One big technical worry is that the land is very close to the sea. Critics often mention flood risks or the fact that the soil is “black cotton soil,” which is hard to build on. This makes construction more expensive and slower.
- Too Many Middlemen: I have seen so many “investors” get angry because they bought land from a small local seller who promised them the world. When the government rules changed, these sellers disappeared. This creates a lot of bad blood and angry posts online.
- Money is Stuck: Since there is no “secondary market” yet, you cannot easily sell your plot to someone else. In a city like Bangalore or Mumbai, you can sell a flat in a month. In Dholera, your money is locked in a vault and you don’t have the key yet.
Is it a scam or just slow?
This is where my experience kicks in. I don’t think it is a scam because the government is spending thousands of crores on the Activation Area. However, the marketing is sometimes too loud.
- Broken Promises: Many developers used the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sell plots. When the big factories didn’t open in two years like they said, people felt cheated.
- Distance from Ahmedabad: It is about 100 kilometers away. That is a long drive. Until the new high speed expressway is totally finished, it feels like you are buying land on the moon.
- High Expectations: People expected it to look like Singapore by 2023. It does not. When expectations are high and reality is slow, negative reviews are the natural result.
My honest advice as an analyst
I have watched cities grow from nothing before. If you are a father looking to buy something for your ten-year-old son to use when he is thirty, maybe it works. But if you are using your life savings hoping to double your money by next Diwali, you will probably end up writing a negative review yourself.
The Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) has made things safer, but it hasn’t made the grass grow faster. Most of the “scam” talk comes from people who didn’t check the Title Deed or bought land that wasn’t actually in the “smart” zone. You have to be very careful. Don’t believe the glossy brochures without seeing the dust on the ground first. It is a long-term game, and most people simply don’t have the patience for it.
