Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.1 / Trend U.Ismayilova /
The Azerbaijani Architecture and Town Building Committee will announce a winner of the tender on devising the Regional Development Program of Greater Baku in February, head of the working group Novruz Eldarov said today.
"At present the committee's specialists are completing the work on the evaluation of candidates' proposals," Eldarov said.
According to him, the committee intends to present the candidates' proposals to the World Bank (WB), which provide assistance to the development of Baku general plan
The committee received appeals on participation in the tender from 34 companies out of 21 countries, admitting six groups of companies to participate in the tender:
AS & P Albert Speer & Partners GmbH (Germany);
Moshe Zur Architects Town Planners Ltd., Marmanet organization & Projects, Management International Ltd., Geoda Geographical Data, Landed Property, Mapping and Surveying Ltd. (Israel);
EDAW, AECOM (U.S.);
HOK (Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum) Inc., Development Planning Unit, (England), Shaw Consultants International (U.S.), Scott Wilson (Az. Office) (England);
GHK Consulting (United Kingdom), International Land System Inc. (U.S.), Synergetics Ltd. (Azerbaijan);
Urban Solutions (The Netherlands), Hansen Partnership (Australia), Baku State Design Institute (Azerbaijan).
The tender procedure is carried out with support of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (a member of World Bank group).
"The plan is called Great Baku, as the previous plan of Baku covered graphic principles and concept of 22,000 hectares of the territory of the capital city. Real area of Baku totals 219,000 hectares," Gojayev said earlier.
The last master plan of Baku was adopted in 1987. Meanwhile, The Azerbaijani government, exactly the Azerbaijani Committee on Architecture and Town Building through the loans of the World Bank realize the project on drafting a regional development program of Great Baku. The project includes a perspective development of Baku and Sumgayit and the Absheron region as a whole in the subsequent 20 years. Similar projects have been implemented in some countries of Eastern Europe. However, none of them covered the capital, along with suburbs with a population of over 3 million people. The project will involve new technologies, such as the use of geographic information system.