ST.PETERSBURG. Sept 16 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry is to transfer several dozen houses in the Rzhevka- Porokhovye district to the St. Petersburg municipal administration, Alexander Beglov, acting governor of St. Petersburg, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"By the turn of the year the military will have transferred another 22 houses to St. Petersburg's public utility services," Beglov said.
He explained that he meant a total of 86 buildings in the Rzhevka-Porokhovye district, which had belonged to the Russian Defense Ministry. In May 2000 all of them were included in the list of houses to be transferred to St. Petersburg's housing agencies for maintenance and repairs.
According to experts from the 875th communal services directorate of the Defense Ministry, given the scarce funding of housing and communal services of the Russian Defense Ministry, such a transfer will allow living conditions in this initially "military" neighborhood to be considerably improved. In addition to houses, belonging to the Kamennoostrovsky public utility service, the neighborhood quarters another 20 houses, which belong to the Krasnoznamenets Research and Production Enterprise, one of the largest defense industry enterprises.
The Krasnogvardeysk district authorities told Interfax-AVN that the transfer was not being conducted evenly: in 2000 the military handed over eight houses, while in 2002 they transferred 38 houses.
"This year 22 houses will be accepted after external communication networks have been accounted for by special civil maintenance organizations," a district administration official said.