Interim mayor of Chisinau Vasile Ursu hopes that the investors for Dimitrie Cantemir Blvd from the capital will come when Moldova gets the status of neighboring country of the EU as of January 1, 2007. The reconstruction of the boulevard remains, according to the mayor, a wish of the central and local authorities, as the earlier discussions with the investors did not give the anticipated results. He says the authorities show themselves willing to offer the investor the possibility to build on the surfaces of 50 m on both sides of the boulevard blocks of apartments, banks, offices, shops and hotels. According to him, local and central authorities plan to start the designing works for the reconstruction of the boulevard in the coming year, eventually once the given construction is launched. There will be necessary investments of about EUR 200 mln to reconstruct the boulevard, expenses that also include the offering of a number of approximate 2500 apartments to the residents in the zone, Vasile Ursu estimated for Info-Prim Neo. Although the authorities planned the boulevard’s reconstruction following three stages: from Ismail street to V. Alecsandri street, from V. Alecsandri to Renasterii blvd., from Renaşterii blvd. to Tractor Factory, Ursu says that at present it is more reasonable to start the works from the Tractor Factory. He mentioned that on the portion from Tractor Factory to Renasterii blvd. there are the fewest blocks and only 400 new apartments will be needed at the first stage. In the zone where the boulevard will be reconstructed there are also many lands that should be purchased for money. This thoroughfare’s reconstruction presents more difficulties for the municipal authorities, which plan to reconstruct the boulevard in two levels, so that the traffic on the perpendicular streets is not hindered by the traffic on 6 lanes of the boulevard. At the same time, the designing scheme stipulates also a ten-meter-lane in the middle of the boulevard for the tramway. To date, there was only a designing scheme referring to the boulevard’s reconstruction. The final documentation for designing will be proposed by the investor, because they often accept to invest only on the basis of their own designs, Ursu says. The idea to reconstruct Dimitrie Cantemir blvd has been on the local authorities’ table for more years, but the project could not be carried out as the foreign investors requested for legal guarantees to protect the investments. Chisinau’s authorities hope, by reconstructing it, to diminish the flow of transport and passengers on Stefan cel Mare blvd that is the single central thoroughfare of the capital which binds Buiucani, Centru, Botanica districts and enable the access to Rascani and Ciocana districts.