| The Ministry of Transport wants to introduce tolls for roads without waiting for a special law Due to insufficient budgetary funding for highways in Russia, the Ministry of Transport is forced to speed up the creation of a mechanism for attracting private investment in this area and the organization of toll highways. This was stated yesterday by the head of the Ministry of Transport, Igor Levitin, at an extended board meeting of his department. He said that “there is no other way here,” and emphasized that although the federal law “On Toll Roads” has not yet been adopted, this does not prevent the creation of toll roads as such.
Mr. Levitin said that according to the federal target program “Modernization of the Russian transport system until 2010” adopted in 2002, 600 billion rubles should be invested in the development of all types of transport. per year, but budget sources at all levels together provide only 300 billion rubles.
As for government investments specifically in roads, they are not only insufficient, but also tend to decrease from year to year. According to the Federal Road Agency, funding for Russia's road infrastructure has decreased threefold over the past four years. In 2000, 333 billion rubles were allocated, and in 2005 - only 111 billion. According to the head of the agency, Oleg Belozerov, “if funding is not radically changed now, then the share of roads that meet safety requirements will drop from the current 24% by 2010 to this year will drop to 5%. In this situation, the Minister considers it correct not to cut the estimated costs, but to make up for the lack of investment from non-state sources.
The willingness of transport workers to follow the toll road ahead of the legislator was supported by Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Andrei Sharonov, who spoke at the board. He said that from a strictly legal point of view, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade would prefer to first pass a law on roads in general, and only then another law “on the toll regime for their use.” However, Mr. Sharonov admitted, his department spent three years developing its road bill, and so far this work has not been crowned with success. Now, the deputy minister noted, “there is a good itch to pass” another bill - “On Concessions”, which has already passed the first reading in the State Duma. “We will not interfere with this,” Mr. Sharonov promised. On the contrary, he called on transport workers to help finalize this bill, and described the role of his own department in promoting this normative act in a very self-critical manner. “In matters of public-private partnership, we are ready to sprinkle ashes on our heads... We have made no effort to ensure that the law “On Concessions” comes to the second reading,” he said. It is precisely based on the law “On Concessions” that the Ministry of Transport considers it possible to attract private money to road construction and the development of various related roadside businesses.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, who also spoke at the board, set the Ministry of Transport employees the task of introducing and modernizing 3.5 thousand km of roads in 2005. Without naming amounts, Mr. Zhukov promised that the bulk of government capital investments this year will be aimed at financing road facilities, developing transport infrastructure, ensuring transport safety, as well as subsidizing socially important transportation. Among the strategic objectives in the transport sector for the next ten years, he named increasing “population mobility by 40%” and increasing the length of public roads with hard surfaces to 710 thousand km. Mikhail KUKUSHKIN |
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