Building Tomorrow: 10 Cities Under Construction Across the Globe

It is estimated that about 2.5 billion more urban residents from developing countries will need to be accommodated in the next 30 years. Several new cities are being established as a result. Lucy Barnard shows us few most cutting edge examples. We start our countdown of the top 10 Cities Under Construction among the world’s metropolitan area by construction.

Nusantara, Indonesia (2,561 sq km)

The necessity to relocate the capital city from the ancient and overpopulated Jakarta, where the state of affairs is such that the city is sinking at between 0.1-1.8cm a year, is a familiar subject. The location search and selection procedure had started in 2017 officially. Will be the Preference Webbing activity should be located on research center Nusantara, in rain forest area on Borneo island. Stake cutting ceremony was done in mid-August 2022 and the construction progress of presidential palace and other governmental buildings that would officially open this August the fifteenth, on Indonesia’s independence day must be completed in time. It was in the same year that construction started on the second airport. Ministry of the Public Works and Public Housing is developing the whole project of the investment air facility. The main task of the transportation ministry is the construction of the land plots.

Gelephu Mindfulness City: Bhutan, covering 1,000 sq km.

Despite its smallness (i.e. the area 1,000 sq km is only 2.5% of the country’s territory in Himalayan region), Bhutan’s king named the place Gelephu Mindfulness City in Dec. 2023. Formulated by BIG (aka Bjarke Ingels Group), the proposed city will resemble a string of large bridges which will comprise amenities such as new international airport, a university, a greenhouse for urban farming, a spiritual centre, a space for local merchandise and a dam generating “clean” energy. Construction of new international airport and dry port has already been commenced but there is no concrete deadline built up for the project completion.

Dholera Smart City, India (920 sq. km)

Formulated in 2013, Dholeara Smart city in Gujrat is the first of the eight planned ‘smart cities’ across India. It is an attempt to provide a hi-tech environment in order to churn innovation, enhance economic activities and resolve the issues related to overcrowding and pollution. The Dholera Special Investment Region (S Dholera SIR) like any other city in India is 100 km from Ahmedabad and spread in an area of 920 sq kilometer. The project is being held by Gujarat state government and the Indian central government jointly. In the same year that was in 2017, Larsen & Toubro was the winning firm to design the center part and to provide services also. Tata Power has commission of 4400MW capacity ultra-mega solar plant and the first semi-conductor chip manufacturing plant in India will open in Dholera in 2023.

New Administrative Capital, Egypt (714 sq km)

Egypt is building a new administrative capital city, as-yet still unnamed, 45 kilometers towards the east of the world famous Cairo – the site of ancient Egypt’s capital. New Administrative Capital is 700 square kilometers magical project it was first unveiled last year when the Egyptian government signed an agreement with the private real estate fund Capital City Partners led by Hussain Sultan, the Chairman of Emaar Properties. However, Eliminating the Chinese MOU that had been signed with Alabbar earlier in the year and signing a new MOU with China State Construction Engineering Company to construct the 1.71 million square meter central business district part of the project, which entails 20 skyscrapers including ‘Iconic Tower’, the tallest building in Africa, was a decision that changed the course of the project Many civil servants will occupy the recently built state administrations. The future city is the one that has different ways of transportation connecting it to the capital. The transit by monorail which is under construction and Cairo light rail transit are all among the options.

California Forever, USA (202 sq km)

California Forever is the corporation founded by Jan Sramek, the ex-trader of Goldman Sachs whose venture was supported by several rich business people and investors form the Silicon Valley, like Steve Job’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs and Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder). Ever since 2017 the space has been investing over US$900 million to buy the approximately 50,000 acres of Solfano Country, located towards southeast. At the beginning of 2024, the company already announced its plan was to create a new community with 20.000 walkable houses where the residents of about 50.000 would have the opportunity to live in it.

Belmont, USA (101 sq km)

In the year 2017 Bill Gates, the successful founder of Microsoft had also been in news for the acquisition of a 24,800 acre area near Tonopah, Arizona by one his investment firm called Belmont Partners for US$80 million. At a press briefing, Belmont says that their plan is to have a town of 80,000 houses in which these digital networks, data centers, manufacturing techniques and logistics will be predominant alongside autonomous cars and distribution models. Critics also say that the region might be inadequately endowed with water bodies to support such a large project development.

The Line, Neom, Saudi Arabia (34 sq km)

A city of the future, with a construction area of 34 square kilometres, is currently a part of Neom(used to drive development in one square kilometre), a project that covers an area of 26,500 square kilometres. The city which initially is planned to hold 9 million people which around 25% of today’s Riyadh’s population would live . It’s designed to be a 170 kilometers long line on the ground consolidated between the Red Sea and the town of Tabuk. The project consolidates two business buildings with 200 meters of width and 500 meters of height. This is not a much different height than Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers being the tallest buildings on earth. Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia – Mohammad Bin Salman – made an announcement in 2021 suggesting that the city will utilize renewable energy source like solar and wind to support it and has three layers for transportation; one for pedestrians; and a third one for the city’s infrastructure. They say that the whole complex will be a linear one, 135 modules or communities connected and having professional speed trains with no journey taking above 20 minutes. The leaders of NEOM state that the plan will include traffic free roads, no vehicles and no emission of carbon. Earthworks for the project will initiate since October 2021, and we are expected to have the first phase done by 2030.

Al Jawahiri Residential City, Iraq (28 sq km)

The first of the five cities that will be built in Baghdad in 2023 helps the government tackle the housing crisis and crowding in Baghdad’s urban areas through the construction of Al Jawahiri Residential City which is situated at 10 km. west of Baghdad and the city will cover 7,121 acres of land and consist of 30,000 homes. In a local Chinese media report, two companies were named, East China Engineering Science and Technology Company and China National Chemical Engineering Company with a third one the Iraqi company named Shams al Binaa (part of SAC Group) breaking ground on the project in December 2023. Construction is estimated to begin in the 4 to 5 year period.

Tatu, Kenya (20sq km)

Tatu City is 5,000 acre SEZ and charter city which is located in Nairobi County, 20km north of Nairobi Capital City formerly owned by Socfinaf Belgium Coffee Farm. Tatu city is part of 10 Cities Under Construction. The deal was first signed back in 2008 and was backed by Rendeavour, which is a privately-owned developer, as well as an investor, with Stephen Jennings, a former founder of Renaissance Capital, the now Russia-based investment firm, spearheading the whole initiative. The data released by the developer in March thirty-four, more than three thousand school houses and apartments have already been built or occupied and 4,500 students are in full course to learn at Tatu City schools. The city in town is alos theheadquarter for local businesses that are approximately 75 in numbers. Rendeavour touts itself as being the biggest urban land developer in Africa and at the same time they are already working on satellite cities in Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Próspera, Honduras (235,000 sq m)

Próspera is a semi-independent city right now in construction on the land of Roatán, a rough 65km distance of its northern coastline, Honduras. The company who manages the project is US-based Honduras Próspera Inc, who was founded with the support of a number of US tech entrepreneurs including Peter Thiel the Co-founder of PayPal. These reforms were established by the government of Honduras through the free zone law or ZEDEs for 50 years in 2021. Bitcoin is provided with legal tender in the community, and it is needed furthermore in the travel tax imposed on the residents every year.According to the company website, over 23,000 square meters of a planned 4 million square meter development at St John’s Bay has already been completed while plans have been drawn up for a 396 acre industrial park at the Port of Satuye and plans for another settlement at Port Royal on the island are at “pre-city vision stage.” However, in 2022 a new government in Honduras, headed by Xiomara Castro has signed legislation to repeal the country’s ZEDE legislation, leaving Próspera in legal limbo. The city is currently at the centre of a US$11bn legal battle between investors and the Honduran government at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.