A total of 17,226.5 hectares of land from four neighboring districts will be annexed into Samarkand to facilitate the city's territorial expansion, the press service of the Senate reported.
Officials emphasized that the decision is far more than a mere administrative reshuffle; it marks a critical strategic step toward the city's future urban development. The newly incorporated territories are being drawn from the following surrounding districts:
- Samarkand district: 13,308 hectares
- Oqdaryo district: 1,410.6 hectares
- Toyloq district: 1,265.6 hectares
- Pastdargom district: 1,242.3 hectares
This redrawing of municipal boundaries aims to eliminate persistent bureaucratic hurdles that have long plagued local residents regarding property registration and utility services. Under the previous zoning, absurd overlaps were common; for instance, a single four-entrance apartment building could find two of its entryways sitting in Samarkand district and the other two within city limits. This left residents completely unable to file standard deed paperwork or forced them to source water and power from entirely different administrative zones. The new zoning blueprint is designed to permanently resolve these complications.
Concurrently, municipal authorities are rolling out strategies to seamlessly integrate the newly annexed territories with the urban core and alleviate bottlenecks on inner-city roads. The Ministry of Transport confirmed that it is actively refining a previously drafted transport master plan to optimize commuter traffic flows and build a highly accessible public transit network for the expanded population.
The expansion follows an earlier directive to more than double Samarkand’s total urban footprint—surging from its current 11,200 hectares to 28,400 hectares. As part of this comprehensive restructuring, the surrounding Samarkand district will completely cease to exist as a separate administrative-territorial entity.
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