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Sobyanin Orders Plan for Moving City Offices to New Moscow

Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has asked city authorities to draft a plan for moving part of the municipal government to areas recently incorporated into the city, a news report said Tuesday.

He announced his decision to move some municipal agencies to the new territories at a meeting of the city's construction committee last week, a Vedomosti source close to the committee said.

The move comes ahead of the expected decision to move some federal government offices to the territories recently merged into the city.

Meanwhile, property developer Moskomstroiinvest said Monday that a plot would be designated along the Kaluga highway in the village of Sosenki for "the city's municipal and executive authorities."

All municipal government bodies designated for relocation currently occupy buildings in the Central Administrative District of the capital, the city construction committee said.

In March, Moscow authorities announced plans to vacate about 90 buildings with a total area of 186,000 square meters. The city currently plans to build two office buildings in Kommunarka with total area of 20,000 square meters, the report said.

The move, first conceived of under former President Dmitry Medvedev, still pends final approval by current President Vladimir Putin.

Acting Deputy Mayor Marat Khusnullin said earlier that if the authorities decided to proceed with the move then he would be prepared to provide them with ready infrastructure.

City Hall has postponed a project to turn Leninsky Prospekt into a freeway, Sobyanin said at a city government meeting Tuesday, Vedomosti reported.

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