The Dholera Advantage: From Ancient Modern Digital Civilisation

The Dholera Advantage: From Ancient Modern Digital Civilisation

Posted : 21th September 2022

IS a shining beacon of digital revolution today. In consonance to present geopolitics, the most advanced chip makers will eventually consider shifting of advanced facilities to India.

A large section of media wrote and spoke about Vedanta-Foxconn setting up their semiconductor and display manufacturing plant in Dholera, Gujarat on 20 Feb 23. Whether one takes the cue from Robert Kaplan’s “The Revenge of Geography” or it is history repeating itself, Dholera SIR is poised to be the chip manufacturing powerhouse of the future.

Going back in time, Dholera was an ancient port city, strategically located at the heart of Gulf of Khambhat. The Gulf of Khambhat encompasses a large part of the Eastern Saurashtra coast and has preserved the remains of the oldest civilization of the subcontinent. This famous Harappan port town at Lothal is situated at the head of the Gulf of Khambhat. Historical period remains have been discovered at Vallabhi on the western coast and Hathab on the southwestern coast of the Gulf as well. This exceptional connectivity of Dholera to port towns through well-laid-out land routes presumably made it a center of globalisation, which resulted in this being a trade hub of the ancient past.

Dholera SIR is India’s first platinum-rated greenfield smart city and is an integral part of 32 smart city projects in the ambitious National Industrial Corridor Development. The site is now earmarked as the home of a roughly Rs. 1.64 lakh crore ($20 billion) semiconductor fabrication plant to be built by Taiwan’s Hon Hai Technology Group, also known as Foxconn, in a tie-up with Indian-focused commodities powerhouse Vedanta Group.

The Foxconn-Vedanta deal is one of the largest corporate investments in India in the semiconductor space. It is anticipated that the construction is likely to begin soon with operationalisation of the facility will duly happen in a well-defined time frame. In the policy paradigm, the government of India has announced a ten billion dollars’ worth production-linked incentive to draw investment to the strategic and critical sector of semiconductors, which in itself is pathbreaking and better than any envisaged policy for this domain, anywhere in the world. Gujarat semiconductor policy clearly gives further advantage to the industry in terms of subsidy, land, tariffs and other associated aspects.

Setting up greenfield fabrication facilities essentially encompass connectivity, seamless energy availability, reliable and qualitative water, import/export metrics and a dedicated workforce with a less turnaround as primary ecosystem enablers.

These ecosystem enablers are the very basis of setting up these high-technology, high-maintenance, zero-error, capital intensive fabrication facilities. In terms of connectivity, Dholera will have an integral airport capable of handling cargo in addition to Ahmedabad and Vadodra airports in vicinity.

The location is in proximity to Pipavav, Mundhra, Kandla and Bhavnagar Sea ports to cater for supply chain aspects to cater for sea port accessibility. Over the land route, it possesses an inherent proximity to the western freight corridor. An integral broad gauge rail connectivity with Ahmedabad-Dholera expressway under construction having a blueprint of futuristic alignment will add to the advantage.

In terms of power, it caters for a reliable power supply with inbuilt redundancies and presence of two DisComs with nearly 40 percent less tariff than other cities. Torrent power has already begun its operations with a huge Tata Solar Park of 4400 MW capacity by Tata Power in proximity for redundancy.

Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/