Thousands of homes to be demolished in Minsk before 2015

Some 5,000 family homes will be pulled down in Minsk by 2015, Alyaksey Vaha, a senior official of the city executive committee's urban development department, said at a "roundtable" discussion on Thursday, BelaPAN reported.
Under the Minsk general development plan, areas of low-story family houses, which occupy 25 percent of the city's total territory, will be "sharply" cut, the official said.

Residential buildings totaling up to two million square meters are to be erected in the capital city every year by 2012.

Housing density will be raised at areas that have been recently included within the city boundary, such as Tsna, Zatsen, Navinki and Tsnyanka, Vaha said. Land bordering the areas will be "reserved" for people who will have their nearby homes demolished and the plots seized for the construction of multi-apartment buildings, he said.

Also under consideration is the allocation of land plots near Minsk for other households who will remain without homes, the official said, noting that the city authorities had "no opportunity at present to give on legal grounds houses with improvements on equal plots in exchange for demolished homes." "We are taking a differentiated approach to the matter," he said.


BelaPAN