NEWS

Evgeniya Chaykovskaya 

Moscow authorities plan to demolish private garages in favour of public car parks, a project known Narodny Garazh (Popular Garage). The owners should not count on compensation.

Gazeta.ru reports that Narodny Garazh, multi-storey car parks proposed by the city authorities, will be built instead of flat car parks and "rakushki" (makeshift metal garages usually found in courtyards). The capital's government decided that the flat car parks are the only available areas for the construction of the garages in Moscow. They will be demolished along with private owned "rakushki" to make room for the construction.

The officials say that the owners of the demolished property will not receive any compensation. Even the places in the new car parks will be available to them for the same price as to everyone else - 350,000 roubles ($11,600).

The owners of demolished garages that cannot afford to pay 350,000 for a parking space will be offered mortgages. Yuri Roslyak, head of the complex of economic policy and city development, said that the space for the parking was given out to these people on a temporary basis, and the motorists should not expect any compensation.

Mikhail Rubinshtein, head of Moscow Motorists Association, says that the Narodny Garazh programme is "anti-popular", considering that not everyone can afford to pay 350,000 roubles for a parking space, the newspaper writes.

Moscow Duma deputy Valery Shaposhnikov says that the government should be consistent and provide parking for people that received cars from the state (like large families, the disabled and World War Two veterans) and cannot afford to pay for parking spots. However, it is not provided by the programme.

Irina Raber, the prefect of the South-East Administrative District of Moscow said at the Moscow government meeting that 101 sites were found for the construction, but most of them were unusable due to geological issues, working communications or their location next to a park. Hence, only 39 sites can be used, 23 out of them already are used as parking sites. Besides, building on the already existing parking site is easier, because there is no need to build roads leading up to the territory and exits or move communications.

Gazeta.ru cites the words of Mikhail Rubinshtein, who said that the motorists' association is not against the programme per se, but wants it to be conducted in a more civilized manner. He said that since 2004 a lot more parking spots in Moscow were demolished than built.

The price of the parking place in Narodny Garazh could rise 420,000 roubles ($14,000). When the programme was announced in 2009 the price was going to be no more than 170,000 roubles ($5,600). Underground parking places in the city cost from $20,000 - $25,000, so the authorities predict high demand for Narodny Garazh anyway, writes Vzglyad.

Narodny Garazh is part of the programme aimed at the improvement of the traffic situation in the capital. Parking is a real problem in the city. Out of 3.5 million cars only 47% are provided with appropriate parking. Spaces of the European quality are available to 9%.

Illegal parking will be more difficult in Moscow, as the authorities recently announced the increasing of fines for parking on the sidewalks, bus stops and places for the disabled by 1000% to 3000 roubles.

Narodny Garazh programme started in 2009, 198 car parks with 74,000 spaces were meant to be built by the end of last year. 423 car parks should be built by the end of 2010 for 155,000 cars. Sale of the places started on February, 15.