Translated material
Ideal scheme: Kazan version
The New Times investigation
Ideal scheme. The city authorities of Kazan intend to purchase about 700 new buses in preparation for the Universiade-2013, which will be held in the Tatar capital. Seems like a noble gesture. If not for one small but: four years ago, the Kazan mayor's office literally imposed 782 Chinese buses on local private carriers for 1.5 billion rubles. What came of it - understood The New Times
In 2007, the mayor of Kazan, Ilsur Metshin, and the then city manager (now a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party), Marat Zagidullov, decided that Kazan should look like London, and therefore the city needs new red buses. On their initiative, in 2007–2008, a widely publicized new transport concept for Kazan appeared, which involved abandoning the gazelles and paziks that worked on the city’s routes and acquiring more modern and environmentally friendly vehicles. At the same time, the length of the new city buses was for some reason strictly regulated: from 9 to 10 meters.
Dragon has arrived...
The requirement for footage became clear when it turned out that the city authorities had excluded everyone they could from the tender for the purchase of buses: both small Kazan entrepreneurs on short gazelles, and Oleg Deripaska's Russian Buses with factories in Golitsino (GolAz) near Moscow and Pavlovo-on-Oka in the Nizhny Novgorod region (PAZ), and even the local Neftekamsk plant, which produces NEFAZ buses * * NEFAZs and GolAZs are longer than 10 meters, PAZs are shorter than 9 meters .. Moreover, NEFAZ was especially offended : plant capacity was idle. Konstantin Kogogin, in 2007 the general director of KAMAZ Leasing Company OJSC (KAMAZ is the plant's main shareholder), commented on the conditions put forward by Kazan to The New Times: “The city described the concept, where getting rid of small buses was declared as a task. NEFAZ was ready to fill this need. But for some reason, the main choice was for middle-class models, and we managed to get only the minimum order.”
The "main choice" was the little-known Chinese buses Higer and Golden Dragon. To study the technical characteristics and price lists of these machines, a delegation of Kazan carriers headed by Marat Zagidullov, the initiator of the program, specially visited manufacturing plants in China.
Crooked route
After Zagidullov held negotiations on deliveries in China, the equipment went to Kazan through a network of intermediary firms. As Kazan journalist Irek Murtazin notes * * In the past, the head of the press center of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, chairman of the Tatarstan State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, the scheme was simple: a certain Leasing Trade LLC, established in 2007, received a loan from Ak Bars OJSC A bank where one of the main shareholders is the Ministry of Land and Property Relations of Tatarstan (a share in the authorized capital is 15.309%). Then, at the expense of credit funds, this LLC purchased the required buses from some Sim Auto CJSC and Yuk Auto LLC, which they, in turn, purchased from Chinese suppliers through third companies, such as Yuk Trans LLC, etc. . By the way, during the "travel time" buses managed to rise in price decently. As Murtazin pointed out in a statement addressed to the prosecutor of Tatarstan, Kafil Amirov * * The statement was sent in the fall of 2008, according to the prosecutor's office, there are no grounds for an investigation, the average difference between the price of a bus indicated in the customs declaration (printouts of customs documents are at the disposal of The New Times ), and the leasing price at which Leasing-Trade LLC transferred Chinese buses to Kazan carriers amounted to more than 1 million rubles: Higer "went" at a price of 1,670,882 to 1,694,915 rubles, Golden Dragon - from 1,950,264 to 2,132,340 rubles. In China, both brands were purchased several times cheaper.
Freehold
After the purchase of buses in the Middle Kingdom, the Kazan authorities held a tender, in which the city's private carriers were to receive the right to lease them. This was a prerequisite for work on urban passenger routes. “Back in 2006, a year before the purchase of the Chinese, the authorities warned carriers: all previous tenders for purchases are canceled, and a new one is launched that meets the requirements of the new urban concept of transport,” Kazan businessman Lenar Khabibulin explained to The New Times. - We started selling routes - three per lot: high, low and medium profitability. We immediately refused to participate in the tender: we calculated the costs and realized that we could not raise the deal. In addition, the lots were practically not raffled off, each of the winners knew in advance which lot would win, and those who supported the idea of switching to the proposed Chinese buses won. According to Khabibulin, there was no other choice: either you agree to the “Chinese” or do not participate in the tender at all: “And who agreed, they threw a strap on them. And this strap turned out to be unbearable.
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“Out of more than 200 companies operating in the city, 19 carriers entered the competition,” says Alik Dimukhanov, Lenar's colleague, “today only 8 remain on the market.” Most went bankrupt in the first year. Only municipal ATPs survived, which took equipment from bankrupt enterprises: “I don’t know how they themselves restructured their debts.”
Dimukhanov and Khabibulin were among those who did not agree to the forced transition to the "Chinese". “After that, we resisted for another two years,” says Dimukhanov. “We held out until criminal cases were brought against us. Having squeezed us out, the city immediately raised the fare to 18 rubles. We kept 10 rubles to the last.”
"Red Chinese"
Immediately after the Chinese buses arrived in the city, it turned out that most of them were not suitable for normal operation. “Some of the simplest nodes have to wait for six months, and when they arrive, it turns out that they do not fit. We don’t like these buses very much - so expect a wheel to fall off on the move or a box to fly, ”complained the mechanic Ilnar to The New Times.
“Even in winter I try to let the “Chinese” through and wait for our “NEFAZ”. Not only is the Chinese “dragons” crowded and stinks of fuel oil, but in winter it’s cold in the cabin - it’s no warmer in the cold than on the street, ”a student Olga, who was waiting for the bus, shared her observations with The New Times.
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There was no choice: either you agree to the "Chinese", or do not participate in the tender at all. And who agreed - they threw a strap on them. And this strap turned out to be unbearable
”
As shown by a public survey of engineers and drivers of motor transport enterprises KPATP-7, PATP-2, KazGorTrans, Stroytrans, ITC, MedKontakt, Chinese buses are not intended for operation in urban mode, since they are not equipped with retarders (mechanism required for braking by the motor itself). The absence of this mechanism leads to rapid wear and failure of the brake system. According to Kazan carriers, almost 80% of the “Chinese” have failed in three years.
The last victims of the "Red Chinese" (two dead and two wounded) replenished the sad statistics of "dragons" and "higers" quite recently: on August 16, 2011, the driver failed to brake and ran into a stop with pensioners standing there.
When through the Arbitration Court "Leasing Trade" began to bankrupt the indebted carriers, one of them - LLC "Dortransport" - tried to protest the actions of the lessor, citing the fact that he was not fully informed about the quality of the buses being purchased. However, the 11th Arbitration Court of Appeal did not heed the plaintiff's arguments: "It is stated in paragraphs 1.2, 1.3 of the leasing agreement that the property and the supplier were chosen by the lessee, and the lessor is not responsible for the choice of property, non-performance and improper performance by the supplier of its obligations under the supply agreement" * * Decree of February 11, 2009 No. 11 AP-74/2009 .. In short, he chose himself, and go to the bottom.
A deputy of one of the municipal councils of Kazan, who owned a private transport enterprise before the appearance of the “red buses”, described the situation in the field of transport services for the city’s entrepreneurs on condition of anonymity: “As it turned out, whether you are loyal or not, no one gives you any guarantees. In fact, our business was taken away for our own money. This is the ideal scheme. We were the last fools. Yes, even on red buses. According to Kazan businessmen, the city authorities "made not even two, but three "ends" on us, and now they want more."
"Golden Chariot"
When asked by The New Times why so many Chinese buses purchased with the participation of the mayor's office failed, and in general - why the new transport system of Kazan turned out to be so ruinous for entrepreneurs, the press service of the mayor's office of the Tatar capital sent a written response, compiled with the participation of the city transport committee : “Urban public transport around the world is unprofitable and subsidized. This is not a business, but the social obligations of the state. /…/ it is incorrect to talk about the profitability of the new transport system… For achievements in the field of reforming urban public transport /…/ specialists of the transport industry of Kazan received awards from the international public award "Golden Chariot". In addition, the mayor’s office claims that Chinese buses do not fail en masse, but work normally: out of 782 purchased, 735 are in operation.
The road from the hotel where the correspondent of The New Times lived to the former collective farm market of Kazan takes 10 minutes by bus. Incoming passengers are provided with tickets by a squat Tajik in a greasy pullover, tearing them off from a roll he takes from his back pocket. Dirty hands of the usher are bandaged with a stale bandage of a week ago, in his hands is a portable cash register, but he "cheats" citizens without payment receipts. However, in a written response from the press service of the Kazan City Hall, it is emphasized that all this is also not true: in fact, “drivers and conductors are dressed in uniforms,” and “since 2008, an automated fare collection system has been introduced that operates on all routes of all types urban passenger transport.
The complete unwillingness of the city authorities to admit the obvious failures that have already happened and their persistence in proving that the “Chinese purchase” has worked give the residents of Kazan every reason to think that the city authorities will cut more than one million in preparation for the Universiade, but it is normal for citizens to move around the city anyway. they won't be able to.
