Sarita, 35, is not keen to move out of Rakhi village located within Naya Raipur, the new capital city of Chhattisgarh being built on an area of 8,013 hectares. Sarita and her husband, a vegetable vendor, are not quite sure about living a life in one of the tiny 400 sq ft flats built by the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) in a newly constructed resettlement colony within the new capital city.“We have nothing against the compensation package per se. But can we get this kind of fresh air in a closed flat,” asks Sarita. Her friend Leela and most others from her village have already moved out of the village, and are now living in government-built houses located a kilometre away.Leela says her family received a compensation of Rs 6.9 lakh per acre for their two acres, with a written commitment from the authority that her family would receive Rs 15,000 per acre for the next 20 years with an increment of Rs 750 added annually. Naya Raipur, which will be fully functional only in 2031 and is expected to house 5.6 lakh people by then, may offer the new government a few lessons as it goes about translating its vision for 100 smart cities into reality.“There are reasons to believe that the new government’s plan to build 100 new cities has its origin in Naya Raipur. Prime minister [then chief minister of Gujarat] Narendra Modi visited the city in 2012 and he tweeted about it too, in the context of Varanasi,” says N Baijendra Kumar, principal secretary to the Chhattisgarh chief minister and chairman of NRDA. As the Naya Raipur experience reveals, the biggest hurdle to building a new city in India is the process of acquiring land and resettling existing villagers.“We made a conscious decision of not disturbing 44 out of 45 villages located inside the city. We have upgraded their infrastructure without dislocating the villagers. In case of one village [Rakhi], the rehabilitation was necessary, as the village is located too close to the new mantralaya [secretariat],” Kumar adds.As world-class amenities including star hotels, an 18-hole golf course, a convention centre, an IT special economic zone, shopping malls and university complexes are being built in the new city, villagers with land are turning into crorepatis overnight. Meet Jodha Ram Sahu who happily moved into a 1,000 sq ft home after surrendering 18 acres of land that he and his family had in Rakhi village. Sahu’s compensation: a cool Rs 1.25 crore.“I utilized part of my compensation to buy 28 acres of agriculture land, 30 km away from here. Those are interior areas, but with this new city becoming fully functional here, that land too will fetch higher prices,” Sahu says. Officers and ministers have fully operational offices in the new city. The Jindal Group has acquired 34 acres of land in the new city and is building its state corporate office.Among the public sector companies, Container Corporation of India (Concor) that comes under the administrative control of Indian Railways has bought land to build an office in the new city. As more infrastructure gets created — an underground electricity and telecommunication network, amongst other projects — more companies will follow.