Specialists working on the new general plan of Kharkiv proceed from the assumption that the city’s population will be about 2-2.5 million people, city mayor Igor Terekhov said.
“We count on 2-2,5 million city inhabitants together with students, who will study in our higher educational institutions and technical schools. Perhaps over time there will be even more,” Terekhov said at a press meeting Friday.
According to him the team of British architect Norman Foster Foundation is preparing pilot projects in 5 areas (cultural heritage, housing, industry, scientific quarter, rivers and green areas). In particular, the mayor assured that the reconstruction of the center of Kharkiv will be done “with respect to the past”.
“The center of Kharkiv will be restored with respect to the past,” he said, noting that this area will be given new life by redesigning the key public places taking into account their history.
Besides, according to him, five city strategies (transport, energy, water and natural environment and redrawing of out-of-date administrative districts of Kharkiv) are being worked out.
Terekhov also promised that in the nearest future we will create a site, which will inform about the work on the general plan.
In turn, Foster noted that architects, while developing the general plan, proceeded from the fact that it is important to preserve rivers and green areas in Kharkiv, and also to improve mobility, connect pedestrian and bicycle lanes and create such transport networks throughout the city. He also noted the importance of the transition to clean energy sources.
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022 the population of Kharkiv was slightly more than 1 million 421 thousand people.
On January 31, the head of the Kharkiv OVA Oleg Sinegubov said that now there are about 1.1 million people living in the regional center.
