Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor

Dholera will transform from a collection of villages into a city of two million with its own international airport.

India plans to build 24 new industrial cities from the ground up.  As part of a $90 billion investment along a new high-speed rail line, the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor will connect New Delhi and Mumbai (drastically cutting shipping times down from two weeks to 24 hours) and create a string of industrial cities to compete with those that house China’s Special Economic Zones. 

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To accomplish this ambitious series of mega-projects, politicians plan to leverage only $4.5 billion in public infrastructure investment, converting it into between $600 million and $1.6 billion (Rs 30 million and Rs 75 million) in total investment for each new city.  Forging partnerships with Japanese firms like Hitachi, Mitsubishi, JGC Corp, and Toshiba, India will acquire matching public funds from Japan and hope to attract the necessary capital investments in industrial facilities and housing.  The Indian state will first connect basic infrastructure such as roads, power, sewage, and water to the first site’s raw land.  Once divided into individual plots then sold, the state will reinvest the funds into the next city’s development – and the process will repeat for the remaining 23 cities.

In a major turning-point and test for India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not only leverage the state’s capital investment to build these cities, but in a country widely viewed as inhospitable in the face of rampant corruption, the Prime Minister will also leverage India’s global reputation as he attracts foreign investment to  this emerging market's coming-of-age party.

Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor