UPDATE: Government approves infrastructure improvement plan

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MOSCOW, Oct 11 (PRIME) -- The Russian government has approved a 6.3 trillion ruble comprehensive infrastructure plan, Transport Minister Sergei Ditrikh told reporters on Thursday.

“The government has approved a comprehensive plan for upgrade and development of mainline infrastructure. The most important part of the plan is the transport section, that encompasses fulfillment of all goals defined by the May order of the president,” he said.

In September, Ditrikh said that the plan includes spending of 1.57 trillion rubles from previously developed measures, 1.45 trillion rubles are to be spent additionally, and about 3 trillion rubles are to come from private investors.

PLANS AND PROJECTS

The 2024 infrastructure plan includes construction of third lines of the Ukha-Torzhok and the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta natural gas pipelines. The Ukhta-Torzhok-3 45 billion cubic meter 975-kilometer thread should be constructed by 2020, and the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta-3 69.2 billion cubic meter 1,110-kilometer line should be built by 2023. The pipes should raise transportation of gas from the Yamal Peninsula to the domestic market and export pipelines like the Nord Stream-2.

The government plans to reconstruct 68 airports in 2019–2024, including 38 airports in the Far East, spending 267.5 billion rubles with only 234 billion rubles coming from the budget and non-budget sources accounting for the rest. The infrastructure plan also sees subsidization of aircraft flights on 175 destinations with the passenger traffic bypassing Moscow accounting for 51.3% of Russia’s combined aircraft passenger traffic.

The plan includes a 655.058 billion ruble project of international transport corridor from Europe to Western China, including a toll high-speed highway from Moscow to Kazan. Budget financing accounts for 390.423 billion rubles and non-budget sources stand at 264.635 billion rubles.

The government also included a clause that allows Russian Railways to pay no dividends on common shares if the company spends money on some railway infrastructure projects.

(66.1832 rubles – U.S. $1)

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