Twentestad was a proposal for the merger of two cities and a town in the eastern part of the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, in the province of Overijssel

Overijssel

Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...

. Enschede

Enschede

Enschede , also known as Eanske in the local dialect of Twents, is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region...

, Hengelo

Hengelo

Hengelo is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the International Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service.-Traffic and transport:...

 and parts of Borne would become an urban area in Twente

Twente

Twente is a non-administrative region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel...

, with about 250,000 inhabitants.

The merger never occurred, because of limited funding from the government and because 90% of all inhabitants of Hengelo were against it. They feared more problems, like criminality and traffic problems. After the project had been cancelled in 2000, Enschede, Hengelo, Borne and the neighbouring cities of Almelo

Almelo

Almelo is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie and Bornerbroek....

 and (later) Oldenzaal decided to intensify their collaboration as Netwerkstad Twente.