"The foundation of two industries have already been laid. The chief minister has seen this. The planning is now being implemented on ground," said Hareet Shukla, CEO of Dholera SIR.

Two of the five firms which have been allotted land in the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) — ReNew Power and Chiripal Group — have started constructing their units, said state government officials as Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited the project site on Friday and reviewed the progress.

Speaking at an event held at Administration and Business Centre for Dholera (ABCD) building, where local BJP leaders and former education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama were present, Chief Minister Patel said, “The expanse or Dholera SIR is bigger than a developed country like Singapore.” He said Dholera was country’s first greenfield smart city to get a IGBC rating.

“The foundation of two industries have already been laid. The chief minister has seen this. The planning is now being implemented on ground,” said Hareet Shukla, CEO of Dholera SIR.

ReNew Power has been allocated 100 acres of land for a 2000 MW solar module manufacturing plant at Dholera SIR, while Chiripal has been allotted 90 acres for a unit producing aluminium foil and PET Resin. The other three units which have been allotted land In Dholera SIR include Tata Chemicals Ltd which is setting 10 GwH Li-ion battery manufacturing plant on 126 acres, Hindustan Petroleum which is setting up petrol stations and Electric Vehicles charging stations on three acres and Torrent Power which has set up power distribution network on six acres.

The official said world class infrastructure worth Rs 3,000 crore has been created in 22.5 square kilometers of activation area in first phase. “90 percent of the work has been completed,” he said about the activation area which is small portion of the SIR that is spread over 920 square kilometers.

Shukla said work of road widening and construction of a canal have begun at the site of Dholera airport. He said the work of building a six lane expressway connecting Ahmedabad to Dholera has also begun and it will be completed in next 18 months.

Rajiv Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, industries and mines, said work on Dholera SIR project had begun way back in 2008 and was conceived by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was heading the state.