OREANDA-NEWS. August 31, 2011. During the videoconference, the prime minister said that the length of Russia’s high-quality modern roads will nearly double in the next 10 years. “We should work taking due account of the funds that we can allocate for building roads,” Putin said. “But we must do everything wisely, with a high quality and on time, and people will take note of these improvements.”

Transcript:

Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our meeting today. We will discuss one of Russia’s perennial problems – roads. We will speak mostly about federal roads because local roads, access roads to residential buildings and so on – even though we have recently started working to improve them and are helping the regions – are above all the responsibility of the regional and municipal authorities. However, today, I repeat, we will speak mostly about federal roads. We will also touch upon the most complicated and acute part of this problem – rural roads.

I will start with Chita. You know that last year I drove along the Chita-Khabarovsk road. Of course, I did not cover 11,000 kilometres as participants will do in the continuing national car rally. They will drive a distance of 11,000 kilometres from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad. Their goal is to inspect the country’s roads, compile rankings and make evaluations. I think that this should be interesting and instructive for the Avtodor state road-building company, as well as for governors and regional leaders, who should be interested in knowing what people think about roads.

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is responsible for communications, transport and road-building, as well as the transport and communications ministers, are taking part in our meeting today.

I’d like to start with Chita where a group of car owners have arrived from Vladivostok. Colleagues, you have inspected the state of that road and I’d like to hear your opinion now.

When I drove on that road last year, the builders were still completing parts of it, while other sections already needed repairs, as the road’s construction began long ago. Drivers complained about inadequate communication services along the route.

Thus, the Communications Ministry was issued the respective instructions and promised to ensure proper communication services along the road by year's end. There should also be proper infrastructure for drivers, including cafes, comfortable motels, medical and safety services, road signs and markings, and so on and so forth.

So I have a question for you, colleagues, especially since I see that there are some people in Chita whom I met during the events organised by the Popular Front. I also met with drivers in Pskov who organised an online movement. They then started personally dealing with drivers from other regions, and ultimately involved local governments in their efforts. So, their initiative has grown into an interesting and useful joint project.

Colleagues, I’d like you to share your opinions about the Chita-Khabarovsk road which, as far as I know, you have driven along.

Please, who will be the first to share their impressions?