Naya Raipur

Naya Raipur (officially Atal Nagar since 2018, named after PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee) is a greenfield planned city designed to be the new administrative capital of Chhattisgarh. Located 17 km southwest of Raipur, the city was sanctioned in 2002 immediately after Chhattisgarh state's formation in 2000, and the first phase of administrative buildings was occupied in 2012.

The city covers 80 sq km of planned development on previously rural agricultural land. The masterplan was prepared by HCP Design (Ahmedabad) — the firm that designed the Indian Parliament-renovation project — using SmartCity-era principles: integrated water + waste + power infrastructure, planned road grid (Raipur is laid out on a perfect orthogonal grid), separated residential + commercial + industrial zones, and integrated metro provisioning.

Key infrastructure operational as of 2024: state Vidhan Sabha (assembly building, opened 2017), Mantralaya (secretariat complex), Chief Minister's Residence + bungalow zone, PWD-built government quarters for 8,000 employees, and a 4,000-bed central government hospital. The city's commercial zone houses headquarters of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM regional), and major Chhattisgarh state utilities.

Naya Raipur represents an unusual model in Indian planning: greenfield-built directly by state government as an administrative capital, with tenants (state ministries, public sector undertakings) entering by mandate rather than market choice. Compared to Dholera (private-sector-led) or GIFT City (financial-service-led), Naya Raipur is government-led and government-tenant.