New Karshi to get congress hall for international forums

A new city is to be built in Karshi, Uzbekistan, on a 5,200-hectare site. The land lies between the A-378 Samarkand–Guzar highway and the 4R-79 road leading to Shakhrisabz, and consists of previously unused desert and pasture land of low bonitet. The preliminary master plan is designed for 500,000 residents, and the president stressed that the city should eventually accommodate 1 million people as a modern extension of Karshi.

The new city will house the regional hokimiyat and other state institutions, along with a congress hall, concert halls and hotels. The complex is intended to become a centre for large international forums similar to those held in Samarkand and Bukhara. The president said public electric transport, and where necessary a ground-level metro, should link the airport and railway station with the new city.

The presentation also covered a tourist complex planned along the Karshi Main Canal. A 235-hectare area has been allocated for a three-kilometre zone, and the project will be carried out in four stages. The first stage, on 30 hectares, will include an artisans' town and a tourist zone, with hotels, restaurants, a museum, an aquapark and an artificial lake. The president instructed that the master plans be developed with leading foreign design and architecture firms.