Tatarstan premier: We must offer road builders good terms

Tatarstan’s prime minister Roustam Minnikhanov at a Transport and Road Economy Ministry session today praised the road construction industry’s 2008 performance.

According to the report by the ministry’s chief Ildus Faskhutdinov, the total funding of road construction in 2008 was 13.7 billion roubles, of which 3.1 billion roubles had been provided from the federal budget for reconstruction, repair and maintenance of federal motorways and 2 billion had been allocated as subsidies from the Russian budget for reconstructing regional roads. 8.6 billion roubles had been provided by the Tatarstan authorities from the local budget, the funds were used to construct, repair and maintain regional motorways, to build driveways to settlements and cattle breeding farms and to improve roads in cities and rural areas.

In 2009, the road industry’s funding in Tatarstan is to be decreased. A total of 12.9 billion roubles, including 4.9 billion roubles from the federal budget, is intended to be spent. The amount of construction will however not be contracted.

“As the head of government, I must say that we will do everything to complete the road maintenance, reconstruction and construction programme we have approved,” claimed Mr Minnikhanov.

The Tatar premier noted that a considerable amount of work was to be done at federal motorways. “I do not know what they proceed from in Moscow when they reduce the financing without reducing the planned road construction targets. Now that the rouble is going seriously cheaper, I cannot imagine how to fulfill the task. We must fulfill the task however,” enhanced the official.

“We could have obtained more money from the federal budget,” remarked the Tatar premier. “This is evidence to that we have no design system up and running yet. In the future, we need to consider the possibilities offered by the large road construction complexes that are being built in the republic.”

The premier highlighted the establishment of the Tatavtodor company last year. “The decision to assemble our road construction capacities in one Tatavtodor company was right,” he said. “In 2009, we will have an entity that is nearly the largest and the best equipped in Russia. The company caters for the entire republic in terms of construction and road maintenance. The new possibilities I think will allow a more effective use of the financial resources we have and will definitely help to impose some order within our road construction economy. It is no easy task to charge the new body properly with work. But the Transport Ministry has to do it.”

The head of the Tatartstan government emphasised that the local authorities were to prevent attempts at gaining illegal profits within the road construction branch. “We need to offer all conditions to our road builders. Road construction is not an area for illicit gains,” he said. “We lack money anyway, and these people are trying to extract something from the builders. Let them earn in business. They need the road themselves, for they make profits on the motorway infrastructure.”

“We have a prosecutor in every district, and in cases like that we are to go to the prosecutor’s office,” pledged the premier.

Roustam Minnikhanov promised to fix the situation with chaotic construction in roadside areas. “What is going on in roadside areas is outrageous . Everyone builds whatever they want and wherever they want. We need to inventory the entire roadside territory, to look into what has been built there and, if necessary, to take action,” said the head of government. “We are prepared to complain to the prosecutor’s office, if necessary.”