CAPITAL BOOM: (From far left) Some sites that are coming up in Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh

When Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh is tired of reading files, he can take a breather. From the glass facade outside his office, he will get an unhindered view of two lakes on the two sides of a tree-lined main road. He can rest his eyes on manicured gardens, a patch of dense forest and even a golf course. For that’s his new office — in what will be his new capital.

Last week, when President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the gleaming state secretariat or the Mantralaya in Naya Raipur, officials and labourers on the fifth floor of the main building were busy working on the interiors of the chief minister’s office.

Spread over thousands of square feet, the office was one of the first to be made fully operational almost two months ago. But Singh felt that the design of his office was not exactly Vaastu-friendly — that is, it wasn’t auspicious enough. So the ceiling, wooden interiors and a few walls were brought down, and the office was redesigned to suit Singh’s specifications.

The Mantralaya is on the highest point on the eastern edge of the city. “We are very clear that no building within Naya Raipur will be taller than the Mantralaya and none will block the view of the CM’s secretariat,” says V.K. Ratre, executive engineer at the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA), the agency responsible for the new city.

Chhattisgarh is not the only new state getting ready for a new capital. The two other small states born on November 1, 2000 — Jharkhand and Uttarakhand — are also planning capital cities. “I think Chhattisgarh has shown us the way,” says the urban development minister of Uttarakhand, Pritam Singh Panwar. “If we work in a bipartisan manner, Uttarakhand can have a new capital in Gairsain soon,” he says.

When Uttarakhand was born out of Uttar Pradesh, there was a fierce debate on where its capital would be. Political leaders were divided between the two regions of the state, Garhwal and Kumaon. And even when Dehradun, in Garhwal, was named the capital, the demand for a summer capital in Kumaon never died down.

The Congress government in Uttarakhand recently announced that Garsain, a small hamlet in Chamoli district in the Kumaon hills, would have a legislative Assembly building where legislators would meet at least twice every year. And that, Panwar says, will be the first step towards building the new capital. “I hope the work will start under my stewardship,” he adds. The foundation stone for the Vidhan Sabha building is slated to be laid on January 14 next year.

Jharkhand has also set the ball rolling. A detailed layout plan for a new capital to be spread over an area of around 2,000 acres on the outskirts of the current capital, Ranchi, has been prepared by the Delhi-based Consulting Engineering Services, which also prepared the design layout for Naya Raipur.

In its presentation before the Planning Commission last year, the Jharkhand government had sought about Rs 3,700 crore in the 12th five-year plan for the new capital. The project is ultimately expected to cost around Rs 15,000 crore. “The layout plan for the new city is ready and tenders for the completion of basic infrastructure will be in place in a matter of weeks,” says Nitin Madan Kulkarni, urban development secretary, Jharkhand government.

Kulkarni adds that besides the state’s funding, the central government would also be approached for funds. “We may even ask the Centre to give us permission to utilise the funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for the new capital,” he says. JNNURM is a city-modernisation scheme launched by the central government under which it grants funds for state governments.

But plans on paper alone will not do. Political will is essential, according to Sudeshna Chatterjee, the brain behind the design vision for Naya Raipur, about 17 kilometres to the southeast of Raipur. “It’s important for government projects like these to have bipartisan support. The fact that the Congress government of Ajit Jogi floated the idea of a new capital and his successor Raman Singh, who is from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), carried the idea forward helped a great deal,” says Chatterjee, a partner at the Delhi-based firm, Ravi Kaimal and Associates.

Bipartisanship is clearly in short supply at least in Uttarakhand. Voices are already being raised against the proposed new capital. Amit Shokeen, a Dehradun-based property dealer and a BJP activist, says that the new capital is a “pipe-dream”. “The state government likes selling dreams to the people. And Garsain, I hope, will remain only a dream as it will take a century for it to develop into a liveable place,” he says.

While the Opposition in Uttarakhand bickers with the ruling party, some believe that Naya Raipur can set a new benchmark for planned cities. “We certainly think so,” says N. Baijendra Kumar, principal secretary to the chief minister and the man overseeing the building of Naya Raipur.

Kumar stresses that everything is state-of-the-art in the new capital. “Naya Raipur is based on several national and international cities such as Washington DC, Singapore, Bhubaneswar and Navi Mumbai. From adequate physical spaces to underground cabling to future needs of energy and water, whatever is conceivable for a future city has been done here,” he says.

Spread over 80 square kilometres and divided into 40 sectors, Naya Raipur may wear a deserted look now but it will be home to not only government officials but also around five lakh residents once it is fully functional.

A swanky new airport terminal with plans for integrated transport facilities, and dedicated areas for super speciality hospitals, shopping, banking and so on — everything is in place, officials stress. “Come back after a year or two and you won’t recognise this place,” says S.R. Shrivastava, chief engineer, NRDA.

Around Rs 1,000 crore has been spent on the basic infrastructure and the administrative blocks of the city so far. “We estimate a total investment of around Rs 30,000 crore in Naya Raipur in the future,” says a confident Kumar.

Raipur will continue as the capital of Chhattisgarh as the new city develops. Over the next two years, the state legislature, the judiciary and the police headquarters will move to Naya Raipur, which will then become the new official capital.

“Everybody should feel that they have a stake in the development of the new capital and that’s precisely what the people of Chhattisgarh feel. We are a young state and we will have a brand new capital,” exults Raipur-based industrialist Sharad Kumar Goel, president, Sarda Energy and Minerals Limited.

That clearly is not a view shared by everybody. Abdul Razzaq, a taxi driver from Raipur, says that Naya Raipur has been waste of money. “The infrastructure of Raipur has been neglected because the government wanted a brand new city. Naya Raipur will be for the rulers, not commoners like me,” Razzaq complains.

For the rulers, though, Naya Raipur is a dreamland. For the present, the state basks in its glory.