Ahmedabad: Gujarat may be gearing up to build smart cities but the state's track record in such projects has been dismal.HCC's Water Front City , Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia's Nanocity and GVK's Maritime City and Japanese Eco-City among others have not yet seen light of the day several years after they were announced.

Other mega projects like Vittal Innovation City in Valsad and Maritime City in Okhamadhi (Dwarka) have been shelved. Announced in different editions of Vibrant Summit, these projects cumulatively had promised investments of over Rs 1 lakh crore.

"Two-three years back, all the three companies were offered land for their Dholera projects and asked to pay for the land. However, they did not make any payment leaving the project in limbo," said a senior government official. An emailed query sent to HCC did not elicit any response.

"Expected development could not happen due to delays in creation of infrastructure in Dholera. Now, the process has been expedited and we are hopeful of a lot of development in the area. The companies which signed MoUs for different projects in Dholera may now choose to come back," said Arvind Agrawal, additional chief secretary , industry and mines department, Gujarat government.