“We need modern safety standards, reliability and durability of motorways. For this, we’ll have to change a lot in the principles and logic of the relations between contractors and road builders in order to make quality construction profitable. The creation of comprehensive contracts should be one of the effective means of resolving this issue. <…>Today, these contracts are not provided for by law in road construction. I hope the current amendments will make it possible to make broader use of public-private partnerships, both for the construction of federal motorways and for upgrading the regional road network.”
“The goal is at least to double the amount of road construction in Russia. That calls not only for money and advanced technologies, but for new approaches to infrastructure development and attracting investments, and above all various models of public-private partnership.”
“This year alone we have allocated 34 billion roubles for municipal road repairs and local grounds development in all big cities that are regional administrative centres. That amount includes the 3.7 billion roubles provided by the federal budget for municipal road repairs and local grounds development in big cities in the Northwestern Federal District. <…> The federal government is committed to overhauling all the federal highways in the next five years: the Russia, Baltia, Kola, Narva, Scandinavia and Kholmogory motorways. We will rebuild and broaden the border crossings to spare people humiliating traffic jams, but we very much hope that our neighbours in adjacent territories will implement their development programmes, too.”
“We need to work and our work should be based on the amount of funds that we can allocate for road construction. However, we need to do it in a smart manner and in time – then people will notice changes for the better, only in this case.”
“No doubt, the transport industry is a major national area of activity because the transport industry, similar to the energy industry, has a direct effect on the viability and vitality of the state and all sectors of the economy.”
“You know that we have completed the Chita-Khabarovsk highway. <…>For the first time in its history, Russia’s territory from the Far East to Kaliningrad is linked by a single road network. That provides a great impetus to the development of our Far Eastern and Siberian territories.”