Special committee to consider the necessity of laying Dimitrie Cantemir Boulevard

The Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) decided to create a committee which will examine the necessity of laying the Dimitrie Cantemir Boulevard and reconstructing the surrounding districts. CMC tasked the commission to establish the existence of local interest, social-economic, environmental or other preconditions necessary for the works, and to include them in the already approved Urban Development Plan of Chisinau. According to the interim head of the Department for Architecture, Nicon Zaporojan, the republican architectural-urban council considers the proposals in this respect as opportune. On March 22, 2007, the CMC approved the General Urban Plan of the municipality of Chisinau, and the construction of the boulevard is considered by the experts as the most expensive. It is planned to lay the boulevard 600 metres North from Stefan cel Mare Boulevard, having a length of 3 km and 6 lanes. This project aims at diminishing the traffic on Stefan cel Mare Boulevard and to optimise the flow of transport in downtown Chisinau. The works include demolishing the buildings in that zone, as well as the ones in the surrounding districts. The local authorities previously stated that they can offer to the investor the possibility to build apartment blocks, banks, offices, stores and hotels on areas of 50 metres on both sides of the boulevard. Investments worth EUR 20 mln will be necessary for the reconstruction of the boulevard, expenses which include offering 2500 apartments to the residents of that zone. The idea of reconstructing Dimitrie Cantemir Boulevard has been discussed for many years by the local authorities, but the project could not be fulfilled, as the foreign investors were requesting legal guarantees for protecting the investments.