‘Yekaterinburg ‘s General Development plan was adopted in 2004, and now we are to start implementing it,’ head of the city’s chief architecture and urban development authority Mikhail Vyatkin announced in the course of a report made on Yekaterinburg ‘s General Development plan.

The plan, valid through the year 2025, was adopted on July 6, 2004 and presented to Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel on July 4, 2008.

The presentation touched upon the city’s key development directions (that is, socioeconomic, environmental, and spatial ones) and issues related to public and private transport, housing and commercial estate, parks and forests, squares and monuments, as well as financing and the city’s future development.

‘According to the plan, four ring roads are to be built in Yekaterinburg in the near future. Two of them have already been launched in Chelyuskintsev St.-Moskovskaya St. – Furmanov St. – Vostochnaya St. (thirteen kilometers altogether) and in Onufriev St. – Serafima Deryabina St. -Bazoviy Lane (twenty kilometers altogether). Two orbital motorways are currently under construction, which is expected to relieve the city’s streets considerably,’ Mikhail Vyatkin added.

He also reported the traffic could be made less heavy through creating bigger intersections and an extensive underground infrastructure.

‘By 2025, twenty-five kilometers worth of underground connections will have been set up, as well as plenty of underground parking lots. For one, there will be a large parking area under the city’s main square that will be linked to the underground stations,’ he said.

The authors of the General Development plan feel public transport has to be made more appealing to the city dwellers, for example, by creating longer routes for the in-city commuter train and by introducing more bus routes.