OREANDA-NEWS In Turkmenistan on Thursday, on the birthday of ex-head of state Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the country's first "smart" city Arkadag (Support), named in his honor and built on his initiative, will be inaugurated, RIA Novosti correspondent reports.

Festive events in honor of this event will be held in the city of Arkadag with the participation of the country's leadership corps, headed by President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, and foreign guests.

The current celebrations are dedicated to the opening of the objects of the first stage of the city's development. These are 336 modern buildings, including two– and multi-storey comfortable residential buildings, public, educational, medical, cultural, sports and other facilities. According to official reports, all these facilities are built from environmentally friendly materials and equipped with digital technologies. And in total, more than $ 3.3 billion was spent on the construction of the facilities of the first stage of the Arkadaga development.

As part of the second stage of urban development, which will last from 2023 to 2026, service and production facilities for the production of food, industrial, pharmaceutical and medical products will be built in Arkadaga.
It is assumed that about 70 thousand families will live in the city of Arkadag, built on the basis of the "smart city" concept. Citizens will use environmentally friendly urban vehicles - electric buses and electric cars, as well as "smart" parking lots, solar panels, wind turbines and other environmental and digital benefits.

The city of Arkadag, located 30 kilometers southwest of Ashgabat, began construction in April 2019 as the new administrative center of the Akhal Velayat (region). However, later the goals of the project changed and Arkadag was completed on the basis of the "smart city" concept, as a prototype of the Turkmen cities of the future. In March of this year, the Mejlis (Parliament) Turkmenistan adopted the law "On the city of Arkadag", according to which, for the first time in the history of the state, Arkadag was given a special legal status – a city of national significance. The State Archive of the city of Arkadag, as well as the TV channel of the same name, a newspaper and a football club have already been created in the new city.