"Naya Raipur will be What Navi Mumbai is to Mumbai"

The Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh, has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons thanks to the deadly Naxal attacks in Dantewada and elsewhere in the state. Yet, he believes that the new capital city planned for the state will boost the image of Chhattisgarh and its economy. Excerpts of an interview with Kushan Mitra.

What do you feel Naya Raipur will do for Chhattisgarh?

There was an obvious need for the new city when the state of Chhattisgarh was created in 2000. Various government departments are all over the city of Raipur, and we needed to centralise all those offices. People who come from other parts of the state to get work done have to drive all over the city wasting their time and money.

But Naya Raipur is not totally a new city; it is more an extension of the present city, like Navi Mumbai is to Mumbai. It will allow the city to expand but also give people access to well-developed infrastructure rather than the haphazard expansion that other cities have seen. There will be proper water, sewage, electricity, local transport and the city will be ecofriendly. We will have large-scale use of solar-power and the entire watersystem will be driven by gravity.

Do you think Naya Raipur will attract the services sector, particularly in information technology (IT) as Chhattisgarh is mainly an upstream manufacturing state?

Recently I travelled to Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai and I met many people from the IT sector. They asked me several questions about the number of educational institutes and airport connectivity. We have several engineering colleges in and around Raipur and we are also promising the IT sector a dedicated area on the edge of Naya Raipur close to the airport. We will make sure that the city attracts companies in sectors that are needed for the state's development.

Several villages come inside the construction area of the city. What about the displacement of people?

We have ensured that all but one village stays in its place. For the village that was demolished, Rakhi, we have given the residents a proper rehabilitation plan inside the city itself.

But some villagers are still unsure of what the city will do to their traditional agricultural way of living?

I feel that once the capital comes up, the business opportunities for these villagers will increase. We are planning areas where they can sell their produce as well as process it. A special zone for the dairy industry is also in the plan. We are also putting up schools for their children as well as a world-class hospital that they can go to.

We are also providing them with the same facilities as other city residents. As the city builds up, there will also be bus and rail connectivity, which will give the villagers opportunities to sell their goods outside the town. I feel that the city will improve the prospects of their children more than anything else.

Do you think potential investors will be scared off by Left-wing extremist attacks in the state? What can you do to reassure investors?

I do not think that investors have been scared off. In fact, I have been rejecting proposals for power, steel and aluminium and have over 250 proposals pending with me. I have 90 proposals for power plants, 60 for steel and 74 for cement plants. I want investment in the IT and services sector and downstream manufacturing sectors such as automobiles and components. I am promising land and 24-hour power.

There are no major problems in the state. People sitting in Delhi and Mumbai feel that there can be a blast anytime, but that is not the case. There are no problems in other major cities in the state either. Yes, there have been issues in some of the more remote areas of the state but investors should not worry about attacks.