Khabarovsk-Vladivostok highway reconstruction must be prioritized
31.08.2010 (17:58) | ITAR-TASS
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes that the reconstruction of the Khabarovsk-Vladivostok highway should be prioritized.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Putin has made a statement in an interview with the news television channel Vesti 24 on his way along the Khabarovsk-Chita highway.
“We were resolving the task to connect the whole Russian territory through a network of motorways and settled it. But the major traffic load is not between Chita and Khabarovsk, but between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. This highway (Khabarovsk-Vladivostok) turned out to be worse than here,” the prime minister said.
Speaking on the Khabarovsk-Chita highway Putin noted that it turned out after his conversation with long-haul truckers, “The highway was built … this part of the highway is good, but there is no maintenance.” For instance, if the tire blows up at the temperature of 50 degrees below zero “it is just dangerous for life,” the premier noted. “It is already very serious, and we missed it. It should be improved urgently,” Putin said.
“The second thing is the date of the highway construction. It was built from 1994 to 1996 and it is obviously worn out, the surface is quite bad. Though they (long-haul truckers) are glad even about it, because there was nothing several years ago. But all the same it is not enough, it is already outdated. Certainly it looks quite good, but not like a federal highway, but like a good rural road, I think nothing more,” the premier stated.
“The third and fourth things are that a quite intensive traffic is going to the North through Yakutia and Magadan, the highway Lena – drivers are speaking straightforwardly now – it is very difficult to work there. And what does it mean very difficult? It means that the volumes of shipments could be quite larger than those that we have now should we have other working conditions,” Putin said.
Therefore, the premier believes that a good road infrastructure should be built along the Khabarovsk-Chita highway – “it is leisure places, maintenance, the places for the drivers to stop, take a break, and eat normally, communications and medical services.” “All this should be done. And here, certainly, the region plays a major role. Certainly, federal authorities, because it is a federal highway, should do all to avoid any additional administrative burdens and to get here to work easily, the local authorities should create its agency so that people could work comfortably and with some profit,” the prime minister underlined.
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