Plans for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor are nothing if not ambitious. Eight new industrial “smart” cities will link New Delhi, India’s sprawling capital, with Mumbai, its premier business and financial center nearly 1,500 kilometers (about 900 miles) to the south — and that’s just in Phase One of four scheduled development stages. The mammoth endeavor, which the sponsoring state governments hope to complete in 2040 at a projected cost of US$100 billion, promises state-of-the-art technology, transportation, and infrastructure, all designed with environmental sustainability in mind. The largest of the satellite cities, Dholera, is expected to house 2 million inhabitants and employ 800,000 people by the time it’s completed.
