The resettlement of workers in the initial period of development of the basin developed almost spontaneously and was carried out in the then existing villages of B. Mikhailovka, Staraya Tnkhonovka. Old Maikuduk, Kompaneisk, etc. and mainly in newly created villages for emergency service in the immediate vicinity of mines and auxiliary enterprises of the coal industry.
In order to streamline the issues of resettlement of workers by the end of 1937, a scheme was developed for the prospective development of the central region of the basin, providing for the cessation of the development of small settlements and the concentration of construction in a single city, whose population by 1950 was supposed to number 260-300 thousand people..
The settlement scheme and general plan of such a city were drawn up by the Mosobliroekt Institute, and in the late 1930s, the New City of Karaganda began to be created in the southeastern part of the Industrial Site, in the immediate vicinity of the village of B. Mikhailovka. However, due to objective reasons, the creation of a single city turned out to be impossible, and further resettlement led to the dispersion of buildings throughout the entire Industrial section of the basin on an area of more than 57 thousand hectares. The new city has become one of the residential areas. Along with it, villages for emergency services continued to be created in the center of the Industrial site. Gradually merging, these settlements (more than 42) formed a second residential area called the Old Town. The formation of a city with a pronounced tendency of approaching housing construction to industrial undertakings led to the fact that the main residential areas being developed, with the exception of the Maikuduk villages. partially Novaya Tikhonovka and Kompaiysk-Sortirovochnaya, were located on coal-bearing areas.
The old town and the adjacent village of Prnshakhtinsky are built up mainly with one-story buildings, among which are scattered two-three-story brick residential buildings, public buildings and industrial enterprises. The area is provided with a fairly well-developed water supply network and, to a lesser extent, sewerage system..
