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3000-km road should be built in Azerbaijanâ€™s capital to eliminate traffic congestion

14 June 2014 14:29 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Aynur Aliyeva – APA-Economics. “The population density in Baku has brought about the traffic congestion in the capital. 730,000 out of 1,300,000 vehicles in the country have concentrated in Baku”, Department Chief of the Azeryolservis OJSC Hidayat Rustamov told APA-Economics.

Speaking of the traffic congestion, Rustamov said that congestion is the ratio of the length or the road to the area of the city.

“That is, how many kilometers of road stand for each square kilometer of the city. This figure is 0,72 in Baku. However, the figure should be 2,2 – 2,4 in cities with a population of millions of people in developed countries. Therefore, we should construct 3000-km road to reach at least the figure 2,2. Consequently, Baku has faced such a tense situation today”, Rustamov said.

With reference to the Intellectual Transport Management Center, head of the department said approximately from 74,000 to 135,000 cars are moving on the country’s main roads daily.

Rustamov said construction of an underground tunnel down the Nefthciler avenue underneath the Caspian Sea has been proposed in General Plan of Baku, in order to prevent traffic jams in the downtown Baku.

He noted that the tunnel along the seabed will connect to the Baku Ring Road, and thus allow automobiles to move east and west of the city from the north and south without entering the downtown Baku.

“Regardless of the adoption of either the project of the Baku Bay Sea Bridge or construction of a bridge beneath the sea, it will help reduce the traffic jam”, he stressed.

However, the State Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning doesn’t consent to the Baku Bay Sea Bridge project. Head of the Department of International Relations and Information under the Committee Jahangir Gojayev told APA-Economics that in the first place Khazri wind doesn’t allow automobiles to constantly move on the Baku Bay Sea Bridge: “Besides that, it will deform the view of the Baku Bay. At the same time, construction of the underground tunnel calls for a relatively less amount of funding. A proportion of about 0.9 km of the underground tunnel will be above the surface. This part will be constructed from the sea port to Nobel avenue. The tunnel will start in Bayil, several 100 metres away from the Bahram Gur monument, and end near the old building of the Marine Port. The tunnel will adjoin the side of the Boulevard and be covered by soil, and therefore, the width of the Boulevard will be enlarged by 20-30 metres. Unlike the bridge, the lentgh of the tunnel is going to be approximately 3,6 km.