Dholera SIR Land Acquisition: Model, Villages, Compensation and Current Status

How land is acquired: pooling, not purchase

Dholera SIR is built on a land-pooling mechanism rather than the cash-compensation acquisition used for most Indian infrastructure projects. The Gujarat Special Investment Region Act, framed to facilitate development of large industrial townships, borrowed its land policy from the much older Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act, 1976, which is based on the concept of "land pooling," where a large number of individual plots are clubbed together. The township project is planned on this integrated land; after infrastructure development, 50% of each plot taken is returned to the original owners.

It is assumed that land values appreciate after development of infrastructure, so there is no compensation given for the 50% of land that was used. Instead, landowners are expected to contribute "betterment fees" to the developers. A separate account gives more detail on the mechanics: fifty percent of the land of each owner in the area is to be "deducted" at market price, while the rest will be returned to them as "developed" plots in designated zones. A betterment charge will be levied on the original owners for the provision of new infrastructure facilities, deducted from the compensation award for half the land. Each affected family is also promised one job in the project.

Because there is no formal transfer of title, the standard 2013 land acquisition law's consent and rehabilitation requirements do not automatically apply. The mechanism rests on the principle that the development authority temporarily brings together a voluntary group of land owners for planning the region's development. Since there is no land acquisition involved per se, compensation and rehabilitation under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act does not apply. Critics have long argued this sidesteps genuine consent: unlike the 2013 Land Acquisition Act, the development planning process for Dholera makes no room for objections or ascertaining consent for the proposed township or the pooling process. There is an a priori assumption of consent built into the land pooling mechanism.

Compulsory acquisition under the standard law is used only where pooling cannot work — mainly for linear infrastructure. Reporting notes a specific 2025-26 budget line for reimbursement for the acquisition of additional private land for the development of Dholera Airport under state support by the government of Gujarat, confirming that direct cash acquisition is still used for the airport footprint alongside pooling elsewhere in the SIR.

Villages covered, by taluka

The SIR footprint sits entirely within Ahmedabad district but spans two talukas. The region encompasses 22 villages, with 19 villages under Dhandhuka Tehsil and 3 villages under Barwala Tehsil. The original notification was issued in 2009: on 4 June 2009, 22 villages belonging to districts Barwala and Dhandhuka were notified about the acquisition of land under the terms of the SIR Act. Termed the Dholera Special Investment Region, the land totalled 879.3377 square kilometres in the original notification.

Key villages named across the six Town Planning Schemes include Dholera, Kadipur, Ambli, Bhadiyad, Gorasu, Gogla, Mundi, Otariya, Sandhida, Khun, Bhimtalav, Rahatalav, Sodhi, Sangasar, Panchi, Cher, Hebatpur, Zankhi, Bhangadh, Mahadevpura, Bavaliyari and Mingalpur. Villages that fall in Town Planning 1 are Kadipur, Aambli, Bhadiyad and Gogla. Villages that fall in Town Planning 2 are Kadipur, Bhadiyad, Gorasu, Otariya, Dholera, Khun, Bhimtalav, Rahatalav, Mundi, Sandhida. Villages that fall in Town Planning 3 are Sodhi, Sangasar, Otariya, Sandhida, Dholera, Mundi, Panchi, Cher. Villages that fall in Town Planning 4 are Dholera, Mundi, Panchi, Sandhida, Hebatpur, Zankhi, Bhangadh, Mahadevpura.

Two of the finalised schemes have documented plot counts: T.P. Scheme No.5 covers approximately 853 plots and spans over 5 villages and T.P. Scheme No.6 covers approximately 612 plots and spans over 5 villages. Scheme 5 covers roughly 75 sq km and Scheme 6 roughly 67 sq km, per the same reporting.

Compensation: what farmers actually receive

Because the model is pooling rather than a straight sale, there is no single published cash rate per bigha or acre for land taken into the SIR — compensation is structured as a return of developed land plus a betterment-fee liability, not a market-linked cash payment. Fifty percent of the land of each owner in the area is to be "deducted" at market price, while the rest will be returned to them as "developed" plots in designated zones. A betterment charge will be levied on the original owners for the provision of new infrastructure facilities, deducted from the compensation award for half the land.

Farmer groups have specifically objected to the valuation basis used for the deducted half. Farmers from about 22 villages in Gujarat's Bhal region staged protests against the Gujarat SIR Act, 2009's land pooling for the DSIR, opposing the 2013 Land Acquisition Act's requirement for consent, the plan to take 50% of their land and return smaller or flood-prone plots, the loss of productive farmland, and compensation based on antiquated jantri rates. Separately, one specific budget line does involve direct cash reimbursement: Rs. 6.56 crore has been proposed to compensate private landowners for acquiring land to build Dholera Airport. This is the only rupee figure found in current reporting tied directly to land compensation rather than infrastructure spending, and it applies specifically to the airport site, not the wider SIR pooling footprint.

Budget and funding allocated

Funding for Dholera SIR is split between infrastructure grants (state and central) and smaller, named allocations for social infrastructure and land-related reimbursement. The Gujarat state budget for 2025-26 set out several specific lines: a Rs. 170 crore allocation is made to develop social infrastructure (hospital and school) at the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR). A Rs. 25 crore allocation is made to develop a fire station at Dholera SIR. Sea dredging for land filling at Dholera SIR by DCI will take place for Rs. 10 crore. Rs. 20 crore allocation is provisioned to develop trunk infrastructure augmentation at Dholera SIR. A Rs. 1 crore provision is made to develop a desalination plant at Dholera SIR. Overall, the finance minister of Gujarat, Kanubhai Desai, in the 2025-26 financial budget, allocated ₹200 crore for the development of Dholera Smart City.

At the central level, funding has historically been committed for trunk infrastructure rather than land purchase: the Centre has allocated funds in tune of Rs 10,000 crore for building infrastructure. More recent project-tracking data shows this converting into specific approvals: GoI has approved the tender packages for various infrastructure components amounting to Rs. 2,784.83 Crore divided into five packages for activation area. State Govt. has transferred 48.31 sq. km to DICDL and matching equity amounting to Rs. 2,784.83 Crore has been [released]. The SPV also generates funds from land itself: DICDL has huge land parcels aggregated from 50 per cent cut from the land owners and its own land bank, and is also selling the developed land to industries and will be able to generate about 50,000 crore from the future sale.

Disputes and farmer pushback

Opposition to the pooling mechanism has run for well over a decade. Between 2009 and 2022, farmers from about 22 villages in Gujarat's Bhal region staged protests against the Gujarat SIR Act, 2009's land pooling for the DSIR. Rallies, sit-ins, threats of hunger strikes, arrests, and the creation of organizations like Bhal Bachao Samiti were all part of the protests, but the government persisted in surveying land and sending out notices in spite of the opposition.

The dispute reached the courts. In December 2015, the Gujarat high court stayed the government from acquiring agricultural land in Dholera. Farmers alleged that despite this stay order, the DSIR authorities continued town planning activities. In 2019, the high court sought explanation from the state about these allegations. Even so, the project pressed forward: in March 2021, the chief minister announced that 85.79 per cent of the total planned work in Dholera was completed. One account of the litigation history notes the court later allowed planning to proceed even as the underlying status-quo order remained contested, describing how the Gujarat High Court has asked the state government to finalize the town planning scheme for Dholera SIR despite the [High Court's] order to maintain status quo on the allegations leveled by the farmer[s].

Farmers' core grievances have stayed consistent: they opposed the 2013 Land Acquisition Act's requirement for consent, the plan to take 50% of their land and return smaller or flood-prone plots, the loss of productive farmland, and compensation based on antiquated jantri rates. A comparable project nearby was abandoned after similar resistance: 36 villages of the Mandal Becharaji SIR were "denotified" from another SIR in 2013 on account of intense local resistance — a comparison farmer groups in Dholera have repeatedly invoked.

Current stage, as of mid-2026

Land pooling and TP scheme finalisation remain a phased, ongoing process rather than a completed exercise. Dholera SIR Town Planning Schemes are phased over 3 decades and all the 6 draft Town Planning schemes are notified. Final TP schemes work is in progress. Some sub-zones within the Activation Area are further along than others, with plan-passing and infrastructure largely complete in TP1 and TP2A/TP4A, while other sub-schemes lag. Independent tracking as of early-to-mid 2025 described land acquisition and TP finalisation as still incomplete in places: land acquisition has been a persistent hurdle, involving approximately 28,000 hectares across 22 villages and affecting over 39,300 households. Farmers have resisted the land pooling mechanism under the Gujarat Special Investment Region Act, 2009, which requires surrendering 50% of holdings in exchange for developed plots, amid unresolved disputes over land records, compensation pegged to 2011 jantri rates, imposition of betterment charges, and allocation of flood-prone sites. The same tracking noted that town planning schemes (TP4 and TP5 remain gradual), i.e. slower than the more built-out TP1/TP2 core.

Adjacent infrastructure that depends on the same land base has also been running behind schedule. The 109 km Ahmedabad-Dholera Expressway, originally targeted for completion in January 2024, was postponed due to heavy rainfall in 2023 and construction challenges; as of May 2025, approximately 95% of the work was complete, with delays tied to a railway overbridge near Tajpur village, a substation relocation, and incomplete highway ramps. Land acquisition for this expressway and the airport continues to draw dedicated budget lines even as the bulk of the SIR's residential and industrial land continues to move through the pooling and reconstitution process rather than outright government purchase.