An international competition for the creation of a tour cluster in Kazan has been announced in India.

In the Indian city of New Delhi, at a meeting of the Committee on Architecture and Urban Development of the Association of Cities and Municipalities of the BRICS countries, they announced the preparation of an international competition for the creation of a tourism cluster in the capital of Tatarstan. Plans for large-scale development of the shore of Lake Sredny Kaban were announced on Tuesday, March 17, by the head of the Committee on Tourism of the Kazan Executive Committee, Alexander Shavliashvili.

The new multifunctional complex will be located in the area of Nazarbayev and Technical streets, near the Botanical Canal. The project involves the creation of hotels capable of hosting up to 150,000 guests per year, a business center, as well as a restaurant area with public spaces. The initiators were the Mayor's Office of the city and the Agna Group Group of companies, which will take over the financing of the project. The improvement of the embankments will be carried out at the expense of the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan. The project has already received the approval of the head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov. Applications for the architectural concept competition will be accepted in spring 2026.

"The competition will attract leading Russian and international architectural teams and create a modern space that will become a new point of attraction for city residents and tourists. The start of accepting applications will be announced additionally at a press conference in Russia in the spring of 2026. After summing up the results of the competition, the winning project will be presented to the residents of the city," the Kazan Mayor's Office said.

The second announced project was the large-scale transformation of the Kazan Zoo, the historical territory of which is located opposite the future tourist cluster. The Kazan Zoo, founded by decree of Emperor Alexander I, is celebrating its 220th anniversary this year and is one of the oldest in Europe.

The plans include the restoration of the house of Karl Fuchs, the founder of the garden, and the restoration of the historic greenhouse. The concept provides for the creation of a modern zoo, an educational center, a museum and a park for year-round events. The architectural project will be prepared during 2026, and the Agna Group will also provide co-financing for landscaping.

The meeting of the BRICS Cities Association is being held in New Delhi with the participation of delegations from Russia, Brazil, South Africa and India; the Kazan delegation is headed by the Mayor of the city Ilsur Metshin.

Earlier, an international architectural competition for the development of Kaban Lake embankments was held in Kazan, the winner of which was a consortium of Turenscape (China) and MAP (Russia) with the Elastic Band project.