Standing Committee on Petitions to cooperate on reconstruction in ger districts

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Petitions appointed a working group to develop the committee’s decisions, summaries, and suggestions to improve the condition of ger districts. The head of the working group, MP J.Batzandan, staff of the Standing Committee on Petitions, and the Ulaanbaatar Governor’s Deputy of the in Charge of Urban Development and Investment Affairs, S.Ochirbat, visited sites of reconstruction in the ger districts on Monday.
The officials visited the Bayanzurkh District and got acquainted with procedures for reconstruction in the ger district area. Construction companies Baganat Urgoo and Gangar Invest are cooperating in the 8th and 16th khoroos to build apartment for 5,000 families. They are aiming to commission apartments for 1,000 families in the first phase of construction. As of today, 23 percent of the land to undergo reconstruction has been made available. The first phase of apartments will be commissioned in June.
Afterwards, the officials visited a construction site in the 7th khoroo of the Sukhbaatar District, where 50 percent of the land to undergo reconstruction has been freed. Engineering network, electricity, and heating issues have been fully resolved, according to the engineers of Asar Urgoo, the company working on the project.
The work to re-plan the ger districts and accommodate ger district residents is underway without any barriers, said S.Ochirbat, adding that the issue of paved roads to apartment towns, engineering networks, heating, and electricity have been completely resolved.
Reporting that the working group was appointed to monitor improvements to ger district conditions, MP J.Batzandan learned from the companies executing projects for redevelopment that some citizens are not making their land available and demanding large sums of money. J.Batzandan advised the construction companies to approach the Standing Committee on Petitions in such cases and promised to cooperate further.
Around 60 percent of Ulaanbaatar’s residents live in ger district neighborhoods. Ger districts contribute to a whopping 84 percent of the city’s air pollution, according to the American Center for Mongolian Studies. In these neighborhoods, water can be hard to come by, improper roads make it difficult for emergency services to find and reach homes, and pollution is high from coal burning stoves and unauthorized waste disposal sites. Therefore, the Civic Council or the Capital City’s Representative’s Khural approved the program to re-plan ger districts. The program aims to develop ger districts into places with better living conditions that provide public safety, housing options, and getting residents connected to infrastructure and the central heating and sewage system.