MURMANSK, May 24. /TASS/. The Arctic Hectare program will begin in the Murmansk Region on August 1, 2021, the region’s property official Viktoria Minkina said on Monday. The region has allocated more than 700,000 hectares for the program, she added.

"The program to apply for a land plot in the Arctic will begin from August 1, 2021," she said. "We have selected the lands - the forests (630,000 hectares), and the areas for any legal businesses (110,000 hectares)."

Two ministries in the region will decide what land plot will be allocated to a certain applicant. The ministry of natural resources, ecology and fishery will distribute plots in the forest, and the ministry of property relations will distribute all other plots. The offered land plots must be not far from existing settlements. The region will not offer plots in closed territories, advance development territories, nature reserves, military or border territories, or territories, related to the country’s defense.

The waiting time from filing an application to receiving an agreement on free use of a land plot will make only 45 calendar days. The choice priority will be granted to local residents, and six months later Russia’s other citizens will be invited to apply for an Arctic Hectare in the Murmansk Region.

In April, the Russian government presented to the State Duma a bill to extend the Far East Hectare Program for the Arctic territories as well as to offer anther hectare in the Far East to those who have developed the first plot of one hectare.

About the program

The Far East Hectare Program offers to every Russian citizen a right to obtain for free a one-hectare plot in the Far East. People may choose plots depending on their purposes: those could be plots of 0.1 hectare for a small house or, for example, 10 hectares for a farm or a recreation project. Within the first year, a user must specify the purpose, in three years - declare use of the plot. By the end of five years, a user may register the ownership for free or may formalize a long-term rent.