Town planning schemes explained
Dholera is being built through six Town Planning schemes, TP1 to TP6, a statutory Gujarat mechanism that pools land, lays out infrastructure and returns serviced plots to owners. All six draft schemes have been sanctioned. Phase-I combines TP1 and TP2 for about 153 sq km, and later phases carry the plan toward roughly 422 sq km of urban land.
What a Town Planning scheme is
A Town Planning scheme, usually shortened to TP scheme, is a long-established Gujarat planning tool for developing land in an orderly way. Instead of acquiring every parcel outright, the authority pools the land within a scheme boundary, redraws the layout to create roads, utilities, public spaces and serviced plots, and then reconstitutes ownership so each original landowner receives a smaller but serviced Final Plot in return. The authority retains a share of the land to fund and provide infrastructure and to sell for development. In Dholera the planning authority is DSIRDA, the Dholera Special Investment Region Development Authority, while the city itself is built by DICDL, a special purpose vehicle incorporated on 28 January 2016. The TP mechanism is what turns raw Bhal coastal land into a planned grid of blocks with reserved alignments for water, power, data and transit. It is a legal and procedural instrument as much as a physical one, which is why the sequence of drafting, sanctioning and reconstituting matters so much to how the city actually takes shape.
The six schemes and how they phase
Dholera is divided into six schemes, TP1 through TP6, and all six draft schemes have been sanctioned. Phase-I is made up of TP1, about 51 sq km or roughly 12,750 acres, and TP2, about 102 sq km or roughly 25,000 acres, together about 153 sq km. TP2 is the important one to know, because it holds both the Activation Area and the ABCD administrative building. Reported later phasing groups TP3 and TP4 as Phase-II at about 126 sq km, targeted across roughly 2023 to 2032, and TP5 and TP6 as Phase-III at about 142 sq km, targeted across roughly 2033 to 2042. Those three blocks sum to about 421 to 422 sq km, which matches the urban-developable figure for the whole region. The individual split between TP3 and TP4 is not separately stated in reliable sources, so it is left open here. The phasing shows the intended order of build, not a guarantee of dates, and the end year has been stated inconsistently as 2040 or 2042.
Zoning and land use within a scheme
Within the schemes, the sanctioned development plan defines a set of land-use zones rather than a single use. The zone types include industrial, residential, City Centre, High-Access Corridor, Knowledge and IT, Logistics, Strategic Infrastructure, Public Facilities, Sports and Recreation, Solar Park, Green Belt, Coastal Regulation Zone, Agriculture and Village Buffer. The total industrial area across the plan is about 11,000 hectares, with Phase-I industrial land at roughly 3,000 hectares gross, and individual land parcels ranging from about 0.5 to 150 hectares. The exact percentage share of each zone is not reliably sourced, because the detailed plan report link is not currently reachable, so this page states the zone types and known totals but does not invent per-zone percentages. Land that sits inside a sanctioned TP scheme is treated as non-agricultural under Gujarat rule, which is one reason the scheme status of a plot matters. Anyone looking at a specific plot should still verify its scheme, its Final Plot number and its registration before relying on any claim.
Why the scheme number matters
For understanding the city, the scheme a location sits in is a useful reference point, because it signals how far the trunk infrastructure and reconstitution have progressed there. The Activation Area, the plug-and-play core, sits within TP2, which is why that scheme is the most developed. Reading the plan through its schemes also makes the phasing honest: activity is concentrated in Phase-I, while TP3 to TP6 remain earlier-stage plans on paper and in draft sanction. This site does not sell plots and does not advise on purchases. If a plot is being considered, the responsible checks are its GUJRERA registration, its non-agricultural status, its Final Plot allotment and clear title, verified independently, rather than any promotional claim about a scheme.
FAQ
How many Town Planning schemes does Dholera have?
Six, numbered TP1 to TP6, and all six draft schemes have been sanctioned. Phase-I is TP1, about 51 sq km, plus TP2, about 102 sq km, together about 153 sq km.
Which scheme holds the Activation Area?
TP2. It contains both the roughly 22.5 sq km Activation Area and the ABCD administrative building, which is why it is the most developed of the six schemes.
What is land pooling in a TP scheme?
The authority pools the land in a scheme, redraws the layout for roads, utilities and public space, and returns a smaller serviced Final Plot to each landowner while keeping a share to fund and build infrastructure.