BAKU, Azerbaijan,
March 17. The cost of urban infrastructure and the
management of rapid megacity growth will be among the key topics of
the World Urban Forum (WUF13), which will be held in Baku on May
17-22, 2026. Against this backdrop, the New Tashkent project in
Uzbekistan is seen as one of the largest examples of building a new
urban center amid accelerating urbanization and increasing pressure
on existing capital infrastructure.


According to official forecasts, Tashkent’s population may grow
by about 25% by 2035 and approach 4 million people, which would
secure its status as the largest city in Central Asia. The
expansion of the capital is already accompanied by rising pressure
on transport systems, utilities, energy supply, and the housing
market, limiting the possibilities for further development within
existing infrastructure and making the creation of a new urban
center more necessary.


Data from Uzbekistan’s National Statistics Committee show that
urbanization in the country continues to accelerate. By mid-2025,
more than 19.3 million people, or about 51% of the population,
lived in urban areas, while around 18.6 million lived in rural
areas. Tashkent remains the main center of attraction. With an
official population of about 3.1 million, the actual number of
people in the capital may be 30–35% higher on a daily basis due to
students and internal migration, increasing pressure on roads,
housing, energy, and social infrastructure.


In these conditions, the authorities are implementing the New
Tashkent project, which is expected to form a new administrative
and business core of the capital and ensure a transition to a
polycentric model of urban development. About 19,700 hectares have
been allocated for the project, with the first phase covering
around 6,000 hectares, while in the long term the new city is
designed for approximately 2 million residents. The scale of
construction requires the creation of new transport, utility, and
energy infrastructure, making the project significantly more
expensive than expanding existing urban areas.


The financial burden is further increased by the fact that the
project largely relies on investment. The updated master plan of
Tashkent includes dozens of major projects worth more than $16
billion in total, while agreements worth billions of dollars have
already been signed for several facilities in New Tashkent.
Authorities expect that the development of new districts will
increase the gross regional product of the capital and create
hundreds of thousands of jobs, but such projects require long-term
financing and a stable inflow of capital. The speed of approvals,
access to land plots, and connection to infrastructure directly
affect investor interest and construction timelines. Since the
project depends on private and foreign investment, reducing
administrative barriers becomes a factor not only of reform but
also of overall project cost.







Another risk is rising prices in the construction sector. Higher
costs of materials, energy resources, and utilities increase the
price of infrastructure projects, especially when roads, networks,
power systems, and housing are built simultaneously. The longer the
construction cycle, the higher the risk of exceeding initial
estimates.


According to UN estimates, about 68% of the world’s population
will live in cities by 2050, and many countries are moving toward
building new urban centers instead of expanding overloaded
megacities. Issues of financing urbanization, attracting
investment, and reducing infrastructure costs will be central
themes of WUF13 in Baku, where large-scale projects such as New
Tashkent are viewed as part of the global trend toward planned
urban development.


The scale of New Tashkent makes it not only one of the most
ambitious projects in the region, but also a test of the country’s
ability to manage urbanization, investment, and infrastructure
costs at the same time. The success of the project will depend on
whether Uzbekistan can contain rising expenses, maintain investor
interest, and ensure development rates that match the capital’s
demographic growth.