Nay-pyi-daw, The Phantom City Of Myanmar

S Kunjabihari Singh *

Naypyidaw, Naypyidaw Capital Region, Myanmar: Uppatasanti Pagoda :: Pix Courtesy - DiverDave at Wikipedia

The 24th of November 2015, a group of Manipuri tourists left Yangon for Mandalay. Yangon, the former capital is still known for its colonial architecture and still retains an almost unique example of a 19th-century British colonial capital. Ever green and moderately cool with plentiful tropical trees intermittent with beautiful lakes, it was known as the 'garden city of the east'.

The main attraction of Yangon could be the Shwedagon Pagoda said to have been built over 2500 years ago. Towering 100 meters above the green cityscape of Yangon, this glittering pagoda is visible from several kilometers away and thus rightly referred to as a prominent landmark.

The luxury bus took off around 8 am for the nearly six hours' journey to Mandalay. On the way, we surged with having a parting glimpse of the reportedly most elaborately structured new capital, urged the tour guide to pass through Naypyidaw, the new capital city of Myanmar.

We had heard of this new high profile city-capital constructed by the Military Junta around 10 years back. The tour guide seemingly felt our yearning for a parting quick look of the city from outside.

We were thus driven along the 7-lane or 8-lane beautifully tared road, with rich greeneries along the median, mini-garden-like 'turn around' road crossings with seemingly an unending rows of plantation along the side ways, largely vast but empty except for one or hardly two cars all along.

A vast city largely empty, often nicknamed the Ghost City of Myanmar is the new capital Naypyidaw officially spelled 'Nay Pyi Taw'. It was formerly named 'Kyetpyay' in the vast area of Pyinmanh, the capital's official name being announced on 27 March, 2006, the Myanmar's Armed Forces Day. It was founded on a greenfield site in the shrub land of Pyinmanh, some 320 kilometers north of Yangon.

This multimillion pound capital city, built from scratch around a decade ago, to be precise, in 2002 has just about anything one would desire in capital city except one crucial component, people.

It is often referred to as a bizarre deserted city equipped with all facets of infrastructures, be they eight-lane highways near resembling airport runways, sprawling government buildings, residential complexes of course, segregated between military ones from civil ones, hotel complexes often nicknamed 'hotel-district', often Las Vegas-inspired, elaborate gardens, malls, movie theatres, museums, a more modern national zoo which includes a 'safari cage' and an air conditioned penguin house.

Situated at around 320 km north of the former capital Yangon, the most strategically important office complex of the Myanmar Army as also some important government ministries was completed in a record time of three years; shifting most departments in November, 2005. The all-powerful Chairman of the military government was reportedly religious to the core and consulted religious astrologers and others for inauguration of the complex.

Story goes that the military government moved at the dot of 06.37 am on 06 Nov, 2005, a date and time fixed as astrologically auspicious time. Note the specifics of the time, not just 6.30 am or even 6 am, but a precise digital time of 37 minutes past 6 in the morning of the day.

And reckoning the immense authority assumed by the Army those days things were in shape without a whisper. It is claimed that the ministries were mostly in place by February, 2006, a time span of just around 4 months to complete the shift.

A surreptitious military government, initially prohibited families of government workers from moving to the new capital. Military HQs were located separately from government ministries and civilians were banned from entering the army zone.

Even the name of the new capital has been meticulously coined as Nay-Pyi-Daw equivalent to 'Abode of Kings' in Myanmar. Official justification for moving the capital to the new place was reportedly, its central location in and around three important though turbulent regions, a transportation hub situated adjacent to Shan, Kayah and Kayin states.

They also felt the imperative need for a stronger military and government presence around the tree regions, apart from their central location. Another apprehension was the proximity of Yangon to sea shores and susceptible to an amphibious foreign invasion. Another reason more plausible, of course, is that Yangon has become more congested and crowded with little room for expansion both government and commercial, as the years go by.

Religious belief held force in that Yangon faces a lurking threat with possible foreign attack was predicted by an astrologer and the all-powerful military chief was adequately obsessed with the possibility of such an attack and thus decided for the massive shift.

No one lives literally. The 8-lane roads all along crisp and impeccably clean on either side of the median which is planted decoratively to catch anybody's eyes, is mostly empty except for one or occasionally two, vehicles at any point of time.

But despite in heavy debt incurred in the construction of the new capital, one thing is established for sure that they are impeccable in their anxiety to keep themselves abreast with the most luxurious cities across the globe.