MOSCOW, November 24 (Itar-Tass) — Moscow City government is reviewing all the previously issued permits for pulling down buildings in the city center and all the irrational housebreakings will be ruled out from now on, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Thursday at a meeting in the prefecture of the city’s Central Administrative District.
“Permits were issued to pull down 220 buildings, including the 147ones located in the Central Administrative District,” he said. “We’ll scrutinize all of them and will see to it that only the rational schemes remain in effect.”
Sobyanin underlined the inadmissibility of pulling down the objects of cultural heritage.
On the whole, the task today is to impose the maximum possible limits on new construction in the downtown areas, he said, adding that proceeding from this principle the city authorities have already severed dozens of investment agreements.
Sobyanin believes that, generally speaking, the Central Administrative District should be closed for new construction projects.
“We’re doing our best to withhold new permissions and works continue at present only at the construction sites where the buildings are close to completion, or else where the investors have already invested heavily and there are no grounds for revoking the contracts,” he said.
The authorities have considered investment projects related to Pushkin Square, the Byelorussky railway station, the Gorky Park, and even the city’s courthouses. The timely taken decisions have made it possible to eliminate the conflict situations, he said.