Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday threw his weight behind the idea of expanding the boundaries of the northern capital (St Petersburg) to include part of the Gulf of Finland. Instead of the seawater that today washes the shores of the Kurortny District but is outside the city limits, about 400 hectares of dry land will appear, with up-market residential houses and business offices. The Federation Council is to approve the new city boundaries before the end of November.
St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko applied to the Federation Council in October, seeking approval for new boundaries for the city that would expand it in the direction of the Gulf of Finland. An artificial site will be created. Following approval, the new district of St Petersburg will be put up for auction and the winner will develop it, a City Hall source explained to Izvestia.
St Petersburg is already creating a man-made site called Morskoy Fasad (Seafront) to add to Vasilyevsky Ostrov. So far, expanding land area has not required the approval of the upper house of parliament because new land was being created within the city limits. Now St Petersburg is going to claim a sea area outside its boundaries.
City Hall was waiting for an answer from the senators when the new project gained support at a very high level. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin authorised submission of a proposal to the Federation Council to include an extra 377 hectares of the Gulf of Finland within the boundaries of St Petersburg "to build residential, public, business and social facilities as well as engineering and transport infrastructure," RIA Novosti reports. The Internet newspaper Fontanka.ru puts the cost of the project at between 8 and 10 billion US dollars. An adjacent section has already been sold to an investor who proposes to build residential houses and a recreation zone. So far, the area has nothing but marshes and landfills.
Irina Tumakova
