Russian toll roads to be cheaper than in Europe

In his address to the parliament last week, President Dmitry Medvedev urged the government to tighten control over infrastructure projects, especially road construction.

Road projects are often overpriced, so the government is seeking public-private partnerships. They allow companies to balance the cost of construction against the revenues they'll receive.

For more detail, RT spoke to Dmitry Tvardovsky, one of the Transportation Ministers' key advisers.

“This prejudice that the cost of building in Russia is more than, for example, in European countries isn’t correct, is not correct, really, because in Russia we have included in the building costs the price for land acquisition, and the price for preparing the territory for building. Some of the preparing of the territory could be 50% of building”

RT: According to the proposal, there won’t be alternative to the toll roads. What’s Transportation Ministry’s view on that?

DT: “According to the present law, we have to have the alternative. That is why now all roads that are tolled, and in plans of the Ministry, only roads that have the alternative is going to be tolled.”

RT: What tariffs are you considering for the toll roads in Russia?

DT: “The tariff for the current road by far so, the bypass of Khlevnoe, is 20 Roubles. Comparing to the European average tariff it’s quite low. Speaking about the future projects, for example, these two concession agreements, Moscow – St. Petersburg, the first part is from the Moscow Ring Road and 43 kilometres from Moscow Ring Road to the destination of St. Petersburg, the average tariff is 3.6 Roubles per kilometre.”