OREANDA-NEWS  On 15 December was announced, that the central ring road (TsKAD) is to start being designed this year, Lyudmila Zenkova, deputy Transport Secretary of the Moscow Region, declared on December 10.

“The work on designing the TsKAD will start in the fourth quarter of the current year. In accordance with the order to elaborate the project documentation, 8.7 billion roubles (~USD 311 million) are to be allocated from the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation, including 2.7 billion roubles (~USD 96 million) to be allocated in 2008,” the official added.

According to Ms Zenkova, the Russian Government is to assign 469.9 billion roubles (~USD 16.8 billion) for developing the TsKAD.

Earlier Oleg Shakhov, CEO of Dorogi Rossii [Roads of Russia], told RIA Novosti that the TsKAD would be divided into 5 sections before it was put up for the tender to be developed. He specified that the road was to be designed as a single project but, according to the target specification, it could be under graded development.

The new ring road is to go through the Moscow region in 50 km from the MKAD. Its construction is scheduled to be started in 2011. The first section of the highway may be open for traffic in 2012.