Rustam Minnikhanov: Moscow-Kazan high speed railway will increase labour mobility

On May 22, speaking at a session “Uniting Russia: results of technological and cost audit of justification of investments into construction of the first national Moscow - Kazan high-speed railway”, which was held within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said that the construction of Moscow - Kazan high-speed railway will join vast territories to employment areas and increase labour mobility.

First Vice-President of OAO “RZhD” Alexander Misharin, who is a moderator of the session, reminded that a year ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin called this project one of the priority national projects. Such projects not only contribute to the development of the transport infrastructure of the country, but are the driving forces of economic development of the regions, bringing the cities closer. 

The state participation in the project will amount to 380 billion roubles, that less than 50 per cent of the total project cost. Alexander Misharin reminded that the organizational and legal scheme of the project combines two models. They are a corporate model (JSC "RZhD") and concession agreement. The share of state support under the concession agreement is 40 per cent.

More than 170 companies, including international ones, said that the project is interesting for them, Alexander Misharin added.

Olga Arkhangelskaya, partner of "Ernst & Young”, told about the work done when preparing the project. In particular, she made a comparison of the project with similar international projects, showed the structure of the construction costs by regions and reminded that the project is second to none in Russia.

Rustam Minnikhanov, in his turn, mentioned China as an example of how the country is changing due to such high-tech transport as highways. According to him, the current passenger traffic from Moscow to Kazan makes 8 million passengers a year, of which 4 million are passengers using railway transportation. It is forecasted that by 2020 the passenger traffic will make 10.5 million people. We see that high-speed railway transport is in high demand, Rustam Minnikhanov noted.

Speaking about the increase in labour mobility due to the construction of high-speed railways, Tatarstan President noted, in particular, the rapid development of the Kama innovative economic cluster in the republic. Even now, the cluster generates more than 50 per cent of all regional profit, he added.

Rustam Minnikhanov stressed the need to continue the project and gave the results of an All-Russian survey conducted by "Public Opinion" Fund in 2013. According to the survey, 80 per cent of the population believes that high-speed railways should be developed in Russia.

Governors of Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod regions also made reports at the session.