The federal government plans to spend about 270 billion rubles ($8.9 billion) on transportation infrastructure in Moscow and the surrounding region over the next three years, Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov said, Vedomosti reported Friday.
The current financing of the transportation system is unprecedented but little progress has been made, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with Sokolov on the development of Moscow's transportation network.
Medvedev also called for speeding up the construction of the Central Ring Road, a highway to encircle the capital and alleviate traffic on the Moscow Ring Road. Currently, land is being allocated for a section of the road, while its construction is scheduled to begin in 2014, acting Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said.
Last year, 121 billion rubles was allocated from the federal budget for Moscow's transportation network. Of the total, 43.5 billion rubles was appropriated for railways, while 29 billion rubles was intended for roads.
This year, the federal government plans to spend 93 billion rubles on transportation in Moscow and 12 billion rubles on railroad crossings in the Moscow region, Vorobyov said.
He added that the government might attract private investors to finance the construction of such crossings. For instance, a railroad crossing project in the city of Pavlovsky Posad is expected to cost 3 billion rubles, he said.
About 140 kilometers of roads per year are expected to be built in Moscow starting from 2014, up from about 60 kilometers annually in previous years, Sobyanin said.
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