The Dholera master plan: TP schemes, zones and phasing

A master plan is what separates a city from a subdivision. It sets where industry goes, where people live, how wide the roads are, where the trunk services run, and in what order the whole thing gets built. For Dholera, understanding the master plan is also the single best defence against a bad plot decision, because a plot's value is largely decided by which Town Planning scheme it sits in and how far along that scheme is.

This guide lays out how the plan is organised, what each part is meant to become, how the phasing works, and where the numbers are solid versus where they are not reliably sourced. If you have not yet read the overview, start with what Dholera SIR is, then come back here.

The building block: Town Planning schemes

Dholera's developable land is divided into six Town Planning schemes, labelled TP1 through TP6. A Town Planning scheme, or TP scheme, is the standard Gujarat mechanism for pooling land, reserving portions for roads and public use, and issuing each landholder a serviced Final Plot in return. All six draft schemes are reported to have been sanctioned. That reported status is important: land inside an approved or sanctioned TP scheme with a Final Plot number is treated as deemed non-agricultural, which is a real legal advantage over raw agricultural land. Our TP scheme explainer covers the mechanism in full.

For a buyer, the practical takeaway is blunt. The TP scheme a plot belongs to, and whether that scheme is sanctioned with a clear Final Plot number, tells you more about the plot's legitimacy and infrastructure prospects than any brochure. A plot in an early, active scheme near built infrastructure is a different asset from a plot in a long-horizon scheme, even if both are inside the SIR.

The six schemes and their reported sizes

The reported areas of the schemes vary in how well they are sourced. TP1 is about 51 sq km and TP2 about 102 sq km; TP2 is the most important because it holds the Activation Area and the ABCD building. TP5 is reported at about 75 sq km and TP6 at about 67 sq km. The areas of TP3 and TP4 are not reliably sourced, so we do not print a figure for them rather than invent one.

How the zones are meant to work

Qualitatively, the plan mixes the usual city ingredients: industrial land, residential land, mixed-use, recreation and tourism, and a dedicated Knowledge and IT Zone. That Knowledge and IT Zone, inside TP2, is where the ABCD building and the city's command centre sit, and it is covered in our Knowledge and IT Zone page. The intent is a functionally separated city where heavy industry, homes and civic functions do not sit on top of each other, which is one of the genuine advantages of planning a city before building it rather than after.

The phasing: three phases over about 30 years

Dholera is planned in roughly three phases across about 30 years. Phase-I is TP1 plus TP2, about 153 sq km, and is where the Activation Area sits. The commonly reported sequencing runs Phase 1 around 2020 to 2025 for the Activation Area, Phase 2 around 2025 to 2030 for the airport and industry, and Phase 3 from around 2030 to the early 2040s for the full 920 sq km. The end-year is stated inconsistently as 2040 in some sources and 2042 in others, so we label it reported and give the range rather than a single year.

The critical discipline here is to treat these as targets. The Phase-1 window has already effectively passed on paper while much of the city remains unbuilt, which tells you the schedule has slipped, as large infrastructure schedules usually do. Our phases and timeline guide tracks this in more detail, and the investment horizon planner lets you map your own hold period against the phasing rather than a seller's optimism.

The Halcrow concept

The overall master-plan concept for Dholera is widely attributed to Halcrow, the UK engineering and planning firm. We flag that as reported rather than primary-confirmed, because it appears consistently in secondary coverage but we are not citing a signed primary contract for it. It is worth knowing as context, since the polished, zoned, trunk-infrastructure-first layout is characteristic of that kind of international master-planning brief, but it does not change anything about a plot's legal status on the ground.

What the plan means for a buyer

Strip away the renders and the master plan gives you a simple checklist. Which TP scheme is the plot in? Is that scheme sanctioned, and does the plot have a Final Plot number? How close is it to the built Activation Area and the trunk infrastructure? These are the confirmed, repeatable drivers of value, unlike the promotional appreciation figures that circulate. To act on them, verify the plot properly using our plot verification guide and confirm the scheme and Final Plot status before you believe any map a seller hands you.

The bottom line

The Dholera master plan is a genuine, six-scheme, phased blueprint for a city, with TP2 and its Activation Area as the live front edge and the rest stretching out over decades. The structure is solid; the areas of TP3 and TP4 and the official zoning percentages are not reliably sourced; and the timeline is a target that has already moved. Know which scheme your plot is in, treat the phasing dates as goals, and you are reading the plan the way it should be read.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• DSIRDA Town Planning scheme records (six schemes TP1-TP6, draft sanctioned) reported.
• NICDC (nicdc.in) and DICDL: Activation Area and ABCD within TP2 (confirmed).
• Property-portal coverage, 2026 (scheme areas and zone character) reported, unverified for TP3/TP4.
• Secondary coverage attributing the master-plan concept to Halcrow (reported). See our full sources page for links.