Dushanbe Construction

Dushanbe is a city with aspirations. I've written already about City Beautification. Along the main street, Rudaki Boulevard, beautification continues with lovely seasonal gardens.

Parliament Building and gardeners

New building on Rudaki Blvd

 But there's also a lot of construction of new apartments, office buildings, big projects, and roads.

New apartments on Rudaki Blvd (from the back)

New building facing Rudaki Park

New building on Rudaki Blvd

Construction of new national theater next to the national museum

New road -- construction starting -- behind Pedagogical Institute

Some classic Soviet buildings like this one...

Across from Rudaki Park - March

 ...are doomed:

Across from Rudaki Park - June

These buildings will probably be replaced with something like this:

New building near Somoni statue

(People interested in architecture, city planning, the construction business, and historical preservation should read this and this.)

I'm sure this is a matter of national pride for many. 

However, some questions remain.

Who's paying for it all?

Who will live or work in all these new places, given the number of empty new buildings already looming over Rudaki Blvd, and given how few people are earning enough money to afford such a place?

near intersection of Rudaki and Ismaili Somoni Blvds

(We heard from a teacher in a nearby town that she was recently not paid her salary for one month. It went to the town government to help cover the cost of a new stadium which they are trying to open by September in time to celebrate Unity Day, the 20th anniversary of the end of a civil war.)