Moscow mulls funding for floating parking lots

Moscow officials are ready to dip into the city’s budget to pay for the long-discussed floating parking lots on the Moscow River. The budgetary funding, however, is to be used only “in cases when no other solution can be found to ease a neighborhood’s traffic problems,” a spokesperson at Moskomstroyinvest, a state-run investment agency said. The area around the Vorobyovy Gory Nature Reserve in southwest Moscow has been named among possible locations for floating parking spaces, and officials seems to be backing the idea. “Building these parking lots has been planned for areas where environmental legislation prohibits any capital development,” the Moskomstroyinvest’s representative said. A special scheme for platforms mooring on the Moscow River’s embankments has been prepared and its agreement with officials is still underway, according to the spokesperson. A standard project for a floating parking lot is to have space for 150 cars.