The redevelopment of Moscow’s historical centre is now complete

City residents and tourists now enjoy new wider pavements, a sky without wires and new places for leisure and walks. In 2017, the renovation of the Moscow city centre was completed and about 7,000 trees were planted, Sergei Sobyanin said on his Twitter account.

A new appearance has been given to the Kremlin, the Boulevard and the Garden rings, Khokhlovskaya Square, Petrovka, Prechistenka and other streets.

The Garden Ring now includes 14 display areas with pavilions, green spaces, venues for public events, exhibits and even new recreation areas under some of the elevated roads and overpasses. Roadways were set apart from sidewalks by adding a buffer zone of trees and grass. The number of lanes on roadways, however, remained the same as pedestrian areas were enlarged by reducing the width of road lanes.

A green belt look, similar to that decorating the city in the 19thcentury, is now part of the Garden Ring. The Boulevard Ring has also become more green and also better lit with new street lamps, with curved supports and projector lights with built-in modules that change colours.

Those who love walking received a new pedestrian route in 2017. It runs from the Moscow City Business Centre along the Moskva River to Taganskaya Square for over 17 km, joining Krasnopresnenskaya, Savvinskaya, Rostovskaya, Prechistenskaya, Moskvoretskaya and other embankments.

Moscow is one of the world’s greenest mega cities with over half of its area receiving new greenery (by way of comparison, London’s green space is about 26 percent, Paris about 21 percent, and Beijing less than 4 percent). It is not just the central streets and parks that are becoming more green, courtyards at residential buildings and kindergartens, schools, recreation and fitness centres, hospitals and outpatient clinics are also more green.