Why India’s youngest state wants its greenest city: Bharat Future City near Hyderabad

Telangana, India’s youngest state, has unveiled plans for a massive 30,000-acre greenfield project called Bharat Future City (BFC), pitched as the country’s first net-zero urban space, as per a TOI report. Chief minister A Revanth Reddy’s flagship project aims to combine sustainability with economic growth, housing zones for green manufacturing, technology, education, and medical tourism.

The state expects to spend between Rs 30,000 crore and Rs 40,000 crore on infrastructure over the next five years. A master plan is being prepared and officials say land acquisition is already underway for pharma clusters and an expressway.

“Of the 10 zones, some will focus on modern economic imperatives, for example, the education hub. We plan to get the best universities from across the world to set up their India campus here,” Telangana special chief secretary Jayesh Ranjan told TOI, who is overseeing the project.

Building a ‘second Hyderabad’

Located 35 km from Hyderabad and close to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, the city is designed to host 10 lakh residents, with jobs for nearly half of them. The project will be developed partly by the government and partly through public-private partnerships.

Officials say BFC is being planned as “another Hyderabad without the chaos,” with underground utilities, reliance on renewable energy, and strict net-zero rules. Visitors driving fossil-fuel vehicles will be asked to switch to battery-operated cars at the city gates.

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The first facility, Young India Skills University, has already begun operations on 57 acres at a cost of Rs 150 crore, marking the city’s functional start.

Learning from failed models

Ranjan emphasised that planners studied where earlier satellite city projects such as Aamby Valley went wrong. “There are three flaws to such a project,” he said. “One, they are too far from their magnet city. Secondly, they were not very inclusive, showcased more as a rich man’s enclave. Third, they had no economic drivers.”BFC, he said, avoids those mistakes with metro and high-speed rail links to Hyderabad, Amaravati, and Bengaluru, mixed housing that includes affordable options, and dedicated economic clusters.

Ten zones, one vision

Half of BFC’s land — 15,000 acres — will be kept as forest. The rest will be divided into nine functional zones, including:

• An AI City modelled as a twin of Hyderabad’s Cyberabad.
• A medical tourism hub targeting clients from the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan.
• A sports hub and multiple industrial clusters.
• Green pharma facilities focused on formulations, research, biotech, and vaccines, instead of polluting bulk drug manufacturing.
• A manufacturing zone for electric vehicles.
• A furniture hub aimed at attracting companies shifting away from China.

Alongside these, the township zone will include retail, entertainment, and social infrastructure, with housing ranging from villas to worker dormitories.

A university hub

Given Hyderabad’s record of producing engineering talent, the education zone is seen as central to the project. Land has been divided into 25-acre parcels that will be given free to reputed universities. “Our eventual goal is for at least 10 universities to come to this campus,” Ranjan said, adding that institutions will have academic freedom under a special regulatory framework.

The big picture

Chief minister Reddy has pitched BFC as both a climate action project and a manufacturing alternative to China. “We are going to set the new standard for Indian cities. We will also build a China +1 alternative in manufacturing for the world,” he said in Delhi recently.

The CM acknowledged that slogans alone won’t attract investment. “China is a manufacturing hub today because it has created numerous urban centres that are manufacturing hubs. We will have to do the same and Bharat Future City is a step in that direction. If you want people from New York to invest here, you will have to give them infrastructure that at least resembles New York’s.”

The masterplan is expected by December, with foundation-laying scheduled for early next year.

Experts weigh in

Urban planners welcomed the ambition but cautioned about execution. “Future City will herald a new thinking among planners in Hyderabad. But the real challenge depends on the city’s economic development plan and how to implement it,” said G V Rao, president of the Telangana Developers Association.

V Narender Rao, a former director of town planning, urged the government “not to repeat the previous govt’s mistakes” and to implement the plan “without compromising on core issues.”

The road ahead

Officials hope BFC will decongest Hyderabad, especially its western IT corridor. Plans include a metro extension to Shamshabad airport, a greenfield radial road to the proposed Regional Ring Road, and a rail link to Machilipatnam port via Amaravati. The state also intends to fund infrastructure through bonds, loans, and land sales in the green pharma cluster.

If it stays on track, Telangana’s Bharat Future City could emerge as India’s most ambitious experiment in building a smart, sustainable urban centre from scratch.

With inputs from TOI

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