Turkmenistan opens futuristic city Arkadag

Turkmenistan opened a new, futuristic "smart" city on Thursday dedicated to its former president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

The city is named Arkadag, or protector, an unofficial title by which Turkmen media have long referred to Berdymukhamedov, who on Thursday marked his 66th birthday.

A source close to the government told Reuters the new city for 73,000 residents cost $3.3 billion to build and there were plans to spend as much again in the next few years.

All the buildings in Arkadag are white and all apartment blocks are seven storeys high, a number considered lucky.

Only electric vehicles are allowed in the city, which features monuments dedicated to a horse of the Turkmen Akhal Teke breed and to Berdymukhamedov himself, and was built close to his native village in southern Turkmenistan.