The project covers a 1.3-hectare site and envisages creating a parking area and improving the surrounding public space. Plans call for preserving existing trees and pedestrian areas, planting more than 1,000 trees and shrubs, and building a new 720-meter pedestrian path.
The project also includes pedestrian and bicycle paths, recreation areas, children’s and workout facilities, sports infrastructure and additional landscaping. The existing trees are to be preserved, and the project does not envisage cutting trees or carrying out capital construction works to create the parking lot.
The land is expected to be put up for electronic auction, with a private partner to receive the right to use the site for 10 years. Twenty percent of the revenue generated from the parking service is planned to go to the city budget.
Project initiators say the parking lot is intended to help regulate traffic in central Tashkent and reduce the disorderly parking of cars in pedestrian areas.
However, the National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change said no environmental review conclusion has yet been issued for the project. It said construction and landscaping work that could affect trees, green areas or the soil cannot be carried out without the required environmental assessment.
The committee called for existing trees and green areas to be preserved as much as possible, for the trees to undergo a full inventory and for the project documentation to undergo environmental review in accordance with established procedures.
The National Library of Uzbekistan named after Alisher Navoi is one of the country’s principal repositories of manuscripts and printed publications.
