Translated material
Silence is golden
The Ministry of Railways reacted sharply to the statements of the Samara governor
The Ministry of Railways ordered the Kuibyshev Railway (KZD) to stop financing the construction of a railway station in Samara. As reported by KZD, this is due to the fact that the regional administration has not yet fulfilled its obligations to finance construction. But, according to the newspaper Vremya Novostey, this is the reaction of the leadership of the Ministry of Railways to the recent speech of the Samara governor Konstantin Titov, who demanded that the ownership share in the station complex under construction be transferred to the region.The Samara station, the construction of which began three years ago, was called the project of the century in the region - in its size and technical capabilities it was supposed to surpass similar complexes in other Russian cities. Financing of construction was carried out from two sides. The majority of the funds, about 70%, were contributed by railway workers - the Ministry of Railways and the Kuibyshev Railway. The remaining 30% was to be contributed by the regional administration. The total cost of the project was estimated at 2.5 billion rubles, of which just over 1.2 billion rubles had been allocated by October 2000.
However, at the end of last week it became known that the management of the Kuibyshev Railway received a telegram in which the management of the Ministry of Railways ordered KZD to stop financing construction. The official reason for its appearance was, according to KZD press secretary Andrei Astashkin, the failure of the Samara regional administration to fulfill its obligations. The latter was supposed to allocate about 70 million rubles for the construction of the station complex, but these funds were never received. In this regard, the Ministry of Railways proposed that KZD finance only technological work related to the movement of passengers (one of the parts of the unfinished complex - the passenger terminal - is already in operation).
Meanwhile, according to the newspaper Vremya Novostey, the decision of the Ministry of Railways was caused by other reasons. A week and a half ago, Konstantin Titov, speaking at a meeting of the regional administration board, expressed the opinion that the region should receive its share in projects financed from the local budget. We were talking, in particular, about the railway station. In addition, the governor openly stated that the region needs to prepare for the privatization of railways.
Representatives of the Ministry of Railways clearly did not like such attacks against the backdrop of non-fulfillment of financial obligations. And they simply stopped funding the construction of the station. Meanwhile, the KZD management claims that work will resume, but refuses to give specific dates.