20 August, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. The "Roads of Vitebsk City" programme is being developed in the regional centre and will be submitted for approval by the city council deputies by November, as reported to BELTA correspondent by the Housing and Communal Services Department of the Vitebsk City Executive Committee. The necessity of creating such a programme is driven by traffic congestion problems, which citizens are increasingly facing, and the expansion of the city limits with the construction of new residential areas. In accordance with the General Development Plan of the city, a promising direction for improving traffic flow could be the creation of a ring road that would connect areas where both multi-storey and individual housing construction will be carried out. The main directions for the development of the arterial street network of the regional centre during the first stage will include the formation of a city-wide main road in the north-western direction with a bridge crossing over the Western Dvina and the reconstruction of the Polotsk overpass; the continuation of the reconstruction of Gagarin Street, where tram tracks will remain, and the traffic will become three-lane. To improve pedestrian safety and increase the capacity of the main roads, the construction of underground pedestrian crossings at four intersections is necessary. As noted by the Housing and Communal Services Department of the City Executive Committee, the route network of urban electric transport is lagging behind the city's infrastructure development. In this regard, the creation of several new trolleybus routes is being considered, the first of which will open by December of this year. The Vitebsk City Executive Committee, as the customer of city transportation, has concluded agreements with UKTP "Vitebsk Tram and Trolleybus Administration", the branch "Bus Depot No. 1 of Vitebsk", 20 individual entrepreneurs, and 30 non-state enterprises. The urban route network currently includes 8 trolleybus routes, 9 tram routes, 46 regular bus routes, 5 express bus routes, and 34 express regular bus routes. -0-

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