Half the population of Mongolia is concentrated in the capital and migration to urban areas, especially Ulaanbaatar, shows no signs of decreasing. Soil and air pollution is rapidly increasing to a hazardous level and the city is now facing water shortage. In order to solve the problems, the Government has developed a Smokeless Ulaanbaatar program. It was discussed and approved by the Standing Committee on Economics yesterday.

According to the program, the best solution to reduce air pollution is to build apartments in place of ger districts. It was planned to build 75,000 apartments in 35 locations. Starting 2014, use of raw coal will be banned in ger districts. Residents will instead use gas and electric for heating. Public transportation will run on gas from January 1. There will also be a special tax for living in UB.

There can be no development without easier communication. The program envisions roads connecting UB with other provincial centers, and other roads connecting provincial centers with border ports. Altogether 5,000 kilometers of roads will be constructed. It is believed that all roads for migrants will not then lead to Ulaanbaatar.

MNT 18 trillion 217 billion is needed for the whole program. In 2010-2012, MNT 8 trillion 855 billion will be used and MNT 9 trillion 362 billion in 2013-2016.

During the discussion MPs expressed their support for the program and asked Minister for Nature, Environment and Tourism L.Gansukh about the financial source. According to him, MNT 1 trillion 362 billion or 6.8 percent of the total expense will come from the state budget, MNT 92 billion 455 million will be received as foreign aid and the remaining 92.7 percent or MNT 16 trillion 893 billion will be from mining revenues. The Government is ready to start the work as soon as Parliament approves the program. Some MPs said UB was not the only place threatened by pollution and migration. There are major influxes into Darkhan and Erdenet cities, too. Unless the Government works actively to create jobs locally, the migration will not stop.

MPs also wanted the possibilities of earthquakes to be kept in mond when building the apartments. More greenery will also help reduce air pollution.