The Azerbaijani authorities are discussing the matter of transferring the country’s capital city from Baku.

The government plans to allocate an initial 20 billion manats (approx. $25,500,456,600) for this project, Minval.az reported citing the Yeni Müsavat Party.  

This matter was discussed several times in the Azerbaijani parliament. Some MPs believe that as a result of the growing number of vehicles and the construction of new buildings in Baku, the environmental conditions have severely deteriorated in the city. 

Baku is envisioned to become Azerbaijan’s commercial center.

The new capital city will be built at a large mountain foothill area nearby Ələt (Alyat) municipality in Baku, on the Caspian Sea shore, but its name is still unknown. The project is expected to start in 2015.