Bleak tower blocks crammed with decrepit apartments, buildings smeared with graffiti and children playing in potted, garbage-strewn streets, according to Reuters. These are the scenes of some of Paris" rundown suburbs which were rocked four years ago by riots that drew the world"s attention to France"s disenfranchised youth. But the government and locals hope that ambitious plans to expand the boundaries of Paris, and link the city"s hinterland to a modern transport system will provide a desperately needed economic fillip to some of France"s poorest neighbourhoods. "The more cut off a place is, the more problems it will have," said Xavier Lemoine, mayor of the suburb of Montfermeil to the north east of Paris, which is home to one particularly rundown public housing estate. "Firms will prefer to hire people who have more chance of arriving on time ... and who will not spend their whole life in public transport only to fall asleep at work," Lemoine added. The 10-year project, billed as the biggest shake up of the French capital since Baron Haussmann redesigned the city in the 19th century, was to take a step forward late on Tuesday when parliament was to start debating on a law that lays the way for the rail link. High unemployment, failing schools and rising violence still blight many of France"s "banlieues". Most of the overwhelmingly immigrant population grow up isolated from the outside world due to inadequate public transport and struggle to find work. The Greater Paris project calls for a 130-kilometre (81 mile) train network around the city which would connect the suburbs of Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil to a series of new economic and technology centres. The 35-billion-euro ($52.2 billion) project is intended to create a green and integrated metropolis whose scale would rival London and Tokyo. Work is slated to start in 2012 or 2013. OPENING THE GHETTOS Haunted by the memory of the 2005 riots, the government is anxious to avoid further strife and sees integrating the suburbs as a way to counter what officials call "ghetto-isation". "This is not being done exclusively to drive economic development ... but also social cohesion," said Christian Blanc, the minister in charge of the Greater Paris plan, told a meeting of local mayors in Paris. "Do you not think that it is urgent to address the two, three, four hundred thousand people who are ghetto-ised in the north of Paris?" he added. However, France"s opposition Socialist Party has criticised the "authoritarian" project, saying it risks creating new inequalities and exacerbating urban segregation in some areas. Other critics say the government is focusing too much on a transport network which will not be built for years rather than addressing an urgent need to improve existing infrastructure. Montfermeil -- which features in Victor Hugo"s 19th century classic novel Les Miserables -- lies a mere 15 kilometres east of the City of Lights, but feels a world away. It has neither a subway nor train station and can be reached only by taking a Paris regional train to the outer edge of the network, then a bus. The journey can take well over an hour. "This area is very badly served in terms of public transport and a new train station would be very good for employment here. It would really give young people a boost," said a social worker who works with school drop-outs and declined to be named. Unemployment runs at twice the national average and almost one third of Montfermeil"s 15-year-olds are not in school, while in neighbouring Clichy-sous-Bois that figure rises to 46 percent, said INSEE, based on data gathered from 2004 to 2008. Clichy and Montfermeil"s estates could not be farther from the glittering, futuristic "Greater Paris", which the government sees as the project of a generation. Whether the next generation in Paris" housing estates will benefit remains to be seen. "In my view, (Greater Paris) can only be a good thing," said the social worker.
