Azerbaijan, Baku, October 18 /Trend A.Akhundov/
The area over the Baku and Absheron peninsula, which is occupied by unauthorised settlements, which appeared in 1991-1993, amounts to more than 10,000 hectares, according to the chairman of the State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan Abbas Alasgarov who attended the 34th session of the Intergovernmental Council for Cooperation in the construction of the CIS in Baku.
"The importance of the issues of urban planning in the region of Greater Baku today is connected first of all with significant rates of both economic and regional development, as well as population growth. Moreover, in recent years the growth of population migration in Greater Baku caught up with natural population growth in the region. All this imposes a great responsibility on the system of urban planning and land use in the area," Aleskerov said.
He added that the project area covers a total of six per cent of the total territory of Azerbaijan, but it includes almost 85 per cent of total gross state. More than 36 per cent of the total population of Azerbaijan live in the area.
"A significant number of refugees and migrants who have moved to Greater Baku for a short period of time is also a significant factor affecting the process of the positive functioning of both the land and engineering infrastructure of the region. According to the preliminary estimates of experts, the area occupied by the unauthorised settlements that appeared in 1991-1993 amounted to more than 10,000 hectares," Aleskerov said.
Institutional development of governance today is one of the major problems of urban planning at this stage.
"Our goal is the creation and improvement of land governance processes, using advanced technologies, including space," Aleskerov said.
Another task for today, according to Aleskerov is the direction of the development of the city to a proper, evidence-based direction, taking into account environmental and economic priorities, population growth and importance of the region at present. Town planning tasks are above all, the improvement of citizens' quality of life. It is the creation of a comfortable residential environment and improvement of the environment throughout the territory and the rise of engineering support to international standards with an improvement of modern passenger vehicles.
