Azerbaijan, Baku, June 4 / Trend, U. Ismaylova.
The Azerbaijani Committee on Architecture and Town Building does not agree with the proposals of the World Bank on the selection of only one international consulting company to develop a " Regional Development Program of Greater Baku", Novruz Eldarov, head of a working group on development of a master plan of the State Committee said.
"The State Committee believes that all the requirements posed by the Committee can not cover the possibility of a consultant for three-dimensionality and complexity of the project" Eldarov said.
He said head of the State Committee also disapproved the works of the consultant, who was selected by the WB experts.
"Selecting a consultant has lasted 25 months, it is too long, and the most important are problems created in the issue of architecture and town building of Baku ", Eldarov says.
According to the WB Baku Office, works in the selection of a consultant to develop master plan of Baku continues and the directions, the development of which requires a consultant, are being specified.
The Azerbaijani Committee on Architecture and Town Building offered the specialists of the World Bank list of international consultants to develop a "Regional Development Program of Greater Baku".
The WB intends to reduce the cost of financing realized together with the Azerbaijani Committee on Architecture and Town Building on the Regional Development Plan of Greater Baku , the WB Baku Office said earlier.
The WB experts evaluating the progress of the plan at the State Committee on Architecture and Town Building decided to eliminate previously announced tender procedure because of local experts have already completed most of the planned works, the office said.
The source said the World Bank will enter small contracts with specialists from different areas in case of necessity to the primary plans to develop a "Regional Development Program of Greater Baku". Contracts can be signed with both local and foreign specialists.
The committee received applications for participation in the tender from 34 companies from 21 countries, however, six groups of companies from Germany, Israel, UK, USA, Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, and Australia have been admitted to the tender.
The plan is called Greater Baku, as the previous plan for Baku covered graphic principles and 22,000 hectares of the territory of the capital city. The real area of Baku totals 219,000 hectares.
The last major plan for Baku was adopted in 1987. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani government, through the Azerbaijani Committee on Architecture and Town Building and with loans from the World Bank, completed the project on drafting a regional development program for Greater Baku. The project includes the prospective development of Baku, 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 its suburbs, with a population of over 3 million people. The project will involve new technology, such as the use of a geographic information system.