ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Norilsk was developing faster than the planned, and the housing was not enough. In the mid-1980s, Norilsk reached a maximum number of 266.8 thousand people, we never got to 300 thousand – this is a myth.
But in 1971, they thought of 200 thousand inhabitants. And even based on this figure, it was clear that the existing 150-200 hectares would not be enough for Norilsk. When all suitable sites are used, the town will become crowded. In the 1970s, the authorities looked for a new place for building or even for another satellite city.
The city project’s chief architect, Vitold Nepokoichitsky, was indignant at the authorities’ short-sightedness when the Copper plant was built on the site planned by him for the town expansion beyond the Shchuchya river. Norilsk was surrounded by industrial zones, where it was impossible to build. On the areas with no factories, the soil turned out to be unusable: building housing on them was unreliable and expensive. They began to look for options, and over the decade several opportunities arose.
First, they seriously considered the idea of building next to the Talnah district, on the Haraelah reservoir banks, they even came up with a name for the future village – Taimyr. The place was clean and unpolluted. But remoteness and poor soil geology – sluggish congelation. Secondly, there was the idea of the New Kayerkan, a good rocky foundation at a shallow depth spoke in its favor. But again, two minuses: the Nadezhda metallurgical plant was already acquiring quite real features, plus the rock turned out to be limestone, it was a pity to lose huge reserves of this valuable raw material. The third option was a site to the northeast of Norilsk: 700 meters from Laureatov street. The place was at hand, but the site itself was small, and the permafrost was also sluggish.
The clue came from an unexpected quarter – from the healthcare sphere. Back in the late 1960s, the authorities looked for a place for a new hospital. In the hospital campus on Bogdan Hmelnitsky street, there were not enough places for all medical institutions: more residents – more hospitals. For a new, 1000-bed, place was found in the east of the Talnah highway. The prospectors conducted a reconnaissance and found a reliable basalt base at shallow depths. The area was large enough to build, besides the hospital, a whole new microdistrict there.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told that in 2002 president Putin visited Norilsk.
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