Baku to become larger than Moscow?

The State Committee for Architecture and Urban Development plans to complete work on a draft plan for the development of Greater Baku till 2030 by mid next year, deputy chairman of the Committee Dovletkhan Dovletkhanov said on Thursday.

"By mid next year, we will define the basic concept of Greater Baku, after which the project will be coordinated. By the end of next year, we will submit the draft to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval," said Dovletkhanov.

"Greater Baku means 11 districts of Baku, Sumgayit and Absheron district with Khirdalan. This totals almost 250,000 hectares, while 10-million Moscow is about 106,000 hectares," said Dovletkhanov.

He said by the end of this week, the Committee will sign contracts with consultants to prepare the plan.

"One contract will be signed with an American specialist who will help prepare the economic part of the regional plan, and the work on zoning of Greater Baku will be done by an European specialist. We expect that these services will cost about $200,000 for each consultant, however, the cost of services of first specialist is about $60,000, the amount of the contract with the second specialist has not been exactly negotiated, but in any case, it will be more than twice lower than we expected," said Dovletkhanov.

According to him, also a contract has been concluded with the National Projection Institute in amount of 1.4 million manat ($1.8 million).

"The whole package of consulting services for the preparation of development plan for Greater Baku totals $5 million, of which about $4 million accounts for the World Bank, $1 million for the government," said Dovletkhanov.


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