City Hall has given preliminary approval for the grandiose plan by Moscow amusement rides firm Pax to build the wheel in Sparrow Hills.
Sergei Kovalchuk, adviser to chief city architect Alexander Kuzmin, said planning for the giant wheel was still at its earliest stages.
But Vladimir Gnezdilov, Pax's general director and a one-time aerospace designer, said in an interview Friday that his company was already negotiating with banks to obtain loans for the $20 million project, 40 percent of which the company plans to finance itself.
"It will be a new, bright and breathtaking amusement project for city residents and tourists," Gnezdilov said.
The 170-meter Ferris wheel will not only be the biggest in the world -- eclipsing the 125-meter London Eye, currently the world's largest -- and the 75-meter wheel at VVTs, the All-Russia Exhibition Center, but will also carry giant cabins seating up to 30 people.
Project manager Valentin Ilyin said the wheel will have 60 cabins -- some of which will sell drinks and precooked meals from a counter -- with tables seating up to 24 people.
While there will not be anything fancy on the menu in the regular cabins, wheel riders will have the option of a VIP cabin for which food would be ordered in advance.
Each cabin will also come equipped with its own toilet.
The regular ride will take 30 minutes, while the ride with lunch will take between an hour and an hour and a half. Ticket prices will range from $2 to $10 depending on the cabin.
In addition to the Ferris wheel itself, Pax also has plans for an amusement park to sprawl around the base of the wheel complete with roller coasters, covered bowling lanes, restaurants and cafes, Ilyin said.
Sparrow Hills was chosen after four months of consideration by Moscow's architectural committee, which was determined to find a location offering the best view of the city while not disrupting the cityscape and obscuring architecturally important buildings.
The wheel will become the third Ferris wheel in the city after the 38-meter-high wheel in Gorky Park and the one at VVTs.
The latter was built by Pax in 1995 to celebrate the city's 850th anniversary in 1997. Gnezdilov said as many as 1 million people ride that wheel each year.
Inspiration for the idea came when the London Eye was built on the Thames embankment across from the Houses of Parliament, Gnezdilov said. He revealed himself to be a true aficionado of the Eye, saying that he rides the British attraction repeatedly every time he visits London.
"The London Eye has become so popular that you cannot find a single tourist booklet that does not mention it. It offers a wonderful opportunity for a bird's eye view of the city," Gnezdilov said. "And the wheel at Gorky Park does not offer a good enough view of Moscow's beautiful city center."
The wheel will be illuminated at night with a lighting system that has been devised by Pax and tested on a wheel it built on top of a South Korean supermarket.
Despite having grand plans at home, Pax also takes international orders and has made Ferris wheels and roller coasters at its facility -- formerly a defense enterprise in the district of Mitino -- for amusement parks in Italy, France and Saudi Arabia.
Pax is now also in negotiations with firms in Germany, China, Kuwait and Las Vegas.
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