Smart City
A planned city that runs core services through integrated digital systems and sensors; Dholera is built on this model.
A smart city is an urban area designed so that core services such as water, power, lighting, traffic, surveillance and environment are managed through integrated digital systems and sensors rather than run in isolation. Dholera is marketed as Dholera Smart City and is planned around this model from the ground up.
In Dholera, the smart-city idea is most visible in the Activation Area, where reported infrastructure includes underground utilities and fibre ducts, piped natural gas, potable water with smart meters and leak detection, a recycled-water network and stormwater systems. The Integrated Command and Control Centre in the ABCD building is designed to be the single brain coordinating these systems.
For a buyer, the smart-city framing is a genuine differentiator where the infrastructure actually exists, but it is worth being precise. The often-repeated claim that Dholera is India's first smart city is imprecise, since GIFT City is described as India's first operational greenfield smart city and IFSC. Dholera is better framed as a flagship greenfield smart city and the largest DMIC node. Read Dholera Smart City Explained, see the ICCC entry, and compare in Dholera vs GIFT City.