Moscow?s Krushchev-era 5-story blocks to be replaced by 2010
MOSCOW, November 11 - Dilapidating standardized five-story apartment blocks that mushroomed in Moscow and other Soviet cities during the rule of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as instruments of solving the knotty housing problem will be totally replaced by new houses by the year 2010, Moscow?s Deputy Mayor Vladimir Ressin told reporters Thursday.
City authorities are planning to disassemble the five-story ?panel blocks? first in the downtown areas.
In 2008, they will vanish in the Southeast District of the Moscow and in 2009, in the Eastern and Northeast Districts.
"The remaining Khrushev-era blocks will be disassembled in the Northern and Southwest Districts by the beginning of 2010," Ressin said. "The authorities are building quite enough new municipal houses for resettling people from the old apartment blocks."
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov earlier called for speeding up the replacement of old houses, widely known in Russia as "khrushchevkis".
"In some prefectures [sub-divisions of districts], all the first-generation houses of the era of industrial housing construction will be pulled down next year," he said.
"In some cases, we?ll yet have to think out how to bring forward our target and liquidate the old housing in 2008 instead of 2008," Luzhkov said.
"This city has an opportunity of doing it, we just need to clearly pursue this goal," he said. "I?m not going to procrastinate with it, and I?d be happy to complete the program in 2007."
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