FROM MEGALOPOLIS TO METROPOLIS

Increasing urban development, overpopulation of the towns and the ever-greater pressure on the urban infrastructure are problems common to most countries and has a particular impact on capital cities. Throughout the ages large numbers of people have been drawn to the capital in search of "a better life".

Naturally Baku, which is subject to change, becoming increasingly built up and expanding every year, has not failed to be affected  by the "big city" syndrome either. The problem began to become more and more acute in the 1990s when, for objective reasons, - owing to the occupation of the territories by the Armenian armed forces and to the sharp economic and social decline in the rest of the regions -  the population hastened to the capital, where it was possible to find jobs and enjoy a normal way of life.

Gradually the situation began to improve, the country's economy developed apace, an enormous number of programmes was implemented and continues to be undertaken. It must however be admitted that, the influx of people from the outlying areas into the city has slowed down somewhat, the problem of overcrowding in Baku is still an acute one. Part of the "Greater Baku Regional Development Plan" deliberately targets this problem.

Decentralisationis the priority 

To illustrate the economic burden borne by the Greater Baku region as a percentage of the figures for the whole country, it is sufficient to point out that it accounts for 80 per cent of the entire country's gross domestic product (GDP) at the present time. Approximately 37 per cent of the republic's population is concentrated in a territory equivalent to 6 per cent of the entire area of Azerbaijan.

This ratio clearly demonstrates the significance of Greater Baku as well as the problems that Azerbaijan is facing in the current situation. So, besides the demographic disproportion, the population is not distributed evenly throughout the region itself. The high population density in the historical centre of the city and in the housing estates to the east of it is accompanied by what is in fact "zero" population density in the rest of the peninsula's territory. But there is hardly any vacant land there in which to resettle people owing to the failure to utilise land properly within the capital.

The "Greater Baku Regional Development Plan", which covers the period up to 2030 and beyond, is called upon to halt the further disproportionate dcvelopment between the capital and the regions and also between the centre and the suburbs of the city. The documents main guideline, which is to be approved next year, is to decentralise the Greater Baku region.

The endless influx of people over the last 30-50 years and the overcrowding of the Absheron peninsula area as a result of the new production capacities mean that the capital and its environs are finding it difficult to cope. This has made the task the planners are posed very much more complicated.

The dispersal of the population and infrastructure throughout the territory of Greater Baku is a process requiring three stages, including decentralisation of the region and city territory.

The first stage envisages moving social and industrial facilities out of the Greater Baku region into other towns in Azerbaijan. In this connection, it should be noted that 41 of the country's 53 institutions of higher education are located in Baku.  This is an abnormal state of affairs, which is one of the factors attracting people into the capital. Some of these institutions of higher education need to be moved out to the provinces. For example, all the educational institutions offering instruction in agriculture should not be operating in Baku, but out in the countryside," Novruz Eldarli, the head of the project Greater Baku Regional Development Plan

Setting up new centres 

Another stage, called regional decentralisation, envisages the relocation of the transport and industrial infrastructure from the territory of Baku proper to Sumgayit and Alat and also to the territory of what is today the city's Qaradag rayon [district].

It is expected in particular that the industrial district of Baku itself covering an area of approximately 3,000 hectares will be regenerated. In the past this area functioned as a large industrial hub of union [Soviet Union -tr] significance. Today these production facilities are no longer needed, on the one hand, and this part of the city is situated practically in the centre of Baku's amphitheatre-like location, on the other, neither meeting ecological nor functional requirements. Abbas Aleskerov, the head of the State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan, believes that making effective use of this territory will be a priority over the next 20-30 years.

He said that one of the vast projects to re-organise modern Baku is the transfer, or to be more precise removal, of the sea port and ferry quay from Baku bay. A decision has already been taken to begin the construction of a new international commercial port 65 kilometres from the centre of the city. "At the same time, the building of new industrial centres of the petrochemical complex along the seashore to the south of Baku will determine one of the directions in the development of Greater Baku involving Alat. A cement plant, a deep-water installation, a new gas condensate plant, a new shipyard and other enterprises are already operating in the Baku region. All this will boost development and result in a built-up zone in this part of the region," A. Aleskerov said. The village of Alat has obviously been allocated an important part in the "Greater Baku Regional Development Programme" project. It is to become a new distribution, commercial and oil and gas centre of Azerbaijan and will expand to become a 300-thousand strong town, which will be further assisted by its location. Besides this, the development of this, the Qaragad, district, will mean that the building of a new airport will also be feasible, so this is also envisaged in the programme.

The implementation of the plans to construct the artificial Khazar Islands near to Alat and also the creation of a housing and entertainment complex on them will provide further stimulus to the development of tourism in this area," N. Eldarli notes.

He pointed out that Sumgayit, which used to be a major, industrial petrochemical centre in the past and is now a busy industrial site currently undergoing something of a rebirth. "In the Soviet period this town was one of the major suppliers of petrochemical products. Today the extensive area formerly occupied by factories is being regenerated and modern, mobile, multi-functional technological facilities are now planned for the production of competitive goods.

A further growth in Sumgayit' s population which will, according to unofficial figures, reach 500,000 permanent residents and where 500-700 are taking up permanent residence every day will particularly help to solve Baku's overcrowding problem.

Another region on which attention will be focussed is the town of Hyrdalan and the territory around it. It has to be acknowledged that this settlement has practically developed over the last 15 years.

Given that it has been precisely these years in which the town planning has come up against major problems, this zone of Greater Baku requires considerable reconstruction.

The next zone targeted for future development is the strip along the northern shore, which has long been a recreation zone. It is planned to build functional facilities here, plant more greenery and develop it into an international-standard resort zone. Even now this area is attracting major investors in resort tourism.

The building of new transport systems linking the satellite towns and circumventing Baku itself is expected to boost the dispersal of population and the facilities around the region.

The developmentof secondary centres 

And finally the third stage envisages further decentralisation by creating several centres in the capital, which will act as a counter balance to the focus on a single centre in Baku's development over the past 50 years.

"Very many cities in the world develop as megalopolises (towns with a single centre), which ultimately leads to significant centralisation and correspondingly to major problems. Therefore the most popular development model of late has been the development of towns and cities according to a metropolis scheme envisaging towns with several centres. Those drawing up the Greater Baku Regional Development programme adopted a development strategy not only for Baku's main centre, but for two additional secondary centres. Baku's present centre is very small in area. If it is compared with the central parts of other capitals, then a territory of 1,000 hectares for a city like Baku is very small," N. Eldarli thinks.

The Greater Baku Regional Development Programme does not envisage expanding the central part of the city, but embraces the setting up of two additional secondary centres, sufficiently distant from the main centre, as well as developing several local centres. It is planned to locate the new secondary centres in the town of Hyrdalan and in the district where there is currently the "Keroglu" underground station; local centres are to be situated in the villages of Lokbatan, Mushvigabad, Novhany, Mashtaga, Mardakan, Tyurkan, and Govsany on the Absheron peninsula.  

 "Today the problem faced by Baku's centre is that this part of the city not only acts as the centre of Baku itself, but of the entire Absheron peninsula. We have therefore set ourselves the task of creating new auxiliary and local centres as close to the main centre as possible, which means that normal supermarkets, parks, piers, sports facilities, financial institutions and so forth need to be built there," N. Eldarli explained.

"In short," he concluded, "the result and ambitious purpose of this urban construction over the next 20-30 years is the formation of a really state-of-the-art, modern, ecologically friendly and aesthetically pleasing living environment for the citizens of Azerbaijan.