Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin has opened the anniversary 10th Moscow Urban Forum (MUF). This year, the theme of this international conference on urban development, architecture, economics and strategic planning is Superstar Cities: Lessons from Successful Transformation. Mosinzhproekt Engineering Holding is an operator of Moscow’s key urban development programmes and has been participating in MUF as Exclusive Partner since 2014.
“I am glad to see you at the traditional Moscow Urban Forum. It takes place in an unusual format – both online and offline – in a very challenging time for the city, the country and the whole world. Over the last year and even longer, we have been facing new challenges and problems that mankind has never encountered before. A pandemic that is taking away people’s lives and health and makes us adjust the reality and our behaviours, and also impacts the global economy and development, is raging across cities, regions and continents,” the city’s chief executive said at the opening of MUF 2021.
According to him, Moscow has chosen its way of resolving these problems in a new environment and is taking prompt and sufficient action to provide medical aid for all population of the city.
The mayor added that cities will become more sustainable after the challenges have been overcome.
Opening the forum, Sergey Sobyanin emphasised that the formula for success for big cities like Moscow is collaboration between the city’s residents and authorities in creating a safe and comfortable environment in every district.
“Our goal is to create comfort for our cities. People stay to live in a comfortable city, put their soul and energy in it, invest, create new jobs that attract new residents. This process is at the heart of the formula for successful cities. It is important to develop every district and create mini cities in them. Also, unique projects like Zaryadye Park should be implemented in the city,” the mayor explained.
Sergey Sobyanin paid special attention to the development of transport in the capital.
“Over recent years, we have already built half of the metro built over the entire history of Moscow’s development. There is no doubt that we will also implement the remaining part. This is a tremendously hard job,” the capital’s chief executive said.
New metro stations continue to be built, including the Big Circle Line, the largest metro circle in the world, which is being built among existing infrastructure, linking the old metro lines and adding new ones. The BCL will be 70 km long and will have 31 stations and three train maintenance facilities. Currently there are 12 stations in operation on the Big Circle Line. The circle is scheduled to be completed next year.
The capital’s street and road network has also developed over recent years. The first major project was the reconstruction of interchanges on the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD).
“Moscow is annually building one hundred kilometres of roads,” Sergey Sobyanin emphasised.
The next stage after the upgrading of interchanges on the MKAD was the construction of a chord highway system.
“Moscow Chords form a new road backbone of the capital, allowing transit traffic to bypass the city centre. In addition, the construction of chords reduces vehicle mileage and harmful emissions,” the Moscow mayor noted. He reminded that three chords would appear in the capital: North-East, South-East, North-West (already built), as well as the South Lateral Road.
The total length of the chords will exceed that of the MKAD and will be four times the length of the Third Transport Ring (TTK).
“If Muscovites had been proposed going through the transformation we have gone through, say, 10 years ago, they would have thought a lot and many would have been against it. Today, when we have gone this way, if Muscovites were proposed returning back to the Moscow of 2000 or 2010, I think that there would be a complete consensus – no one would want to return there. It means we are heading in the right direction. The main thing is not to stop, to move forward, be on top so that our city would be loved by Muscovites,” Sergey Sobyanin concluded.
We’ll remind that the Moscow Urban Forum is the largest congress in the field of urban development, economics and architecture, which has been held in the capital annually since 2011 and brings together prominent statespersons, urbanists, architects and designers, experts and entrepreneurs to exchange experience and gain new professional knowledge.
