Opening remarks by Sergei Ivanov:

Good afternoon, colleagues.

Today we are holding another regular meeting of the Commission on Transport and Communication. Although our agenda contains only one item, it is important: roadside facilities on the Chita-Khabarovsk federal motorway.

As you know, this year we completed a big project begun in 1978: the construction of the 2,000-km Chita-Khabarovsk highway. Now it is only natural to provide the road with up-to-date facilities, making it safe and comfortable to drive rather than leave it a remote, unpopulated passage in the dark. 

I would like to remind you that on August 30, after driving this motorway, the prime minister held a special meeting in Chita and issued instructions for our task. Under these instructions, we are to submit a comprehensive plan for roadside facilities to the prime minister.

There are several variables here including traffic safety and improving the condition of some sections. Since the construction began in 1978, about 500 km of the total length (2,000 km) was built in the Soviet era and naturally needs re-building. But this is a matter for roadway construction workers.

Also, we should provide high-quality medical services in case of highway accidents, and some other services. This is a job for the heads of the administrations of these four regions, and for small and medium-sized businesses.

Last but not least, we should organise mobile phone service throughout the length because there have never been any communication facilities along here, since it passes through a remote wilderness area.

Therefore, the plan should include all the necessary measures relating not only to the bodies of state authority (the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development, the Ministry of Transport, and the Interior Ministry where driving safety is concerned), but also to the authorities of the four regions, and to small and medium-sized businesses.

As regards communications, I know the issue cannot be finished overnight, but I would like to hear a specific plan of when and where repeater towers will be built in cooperation with the power companies to provide communication.  

We should also focus on additional economic development in these four regions in the Far East, specifically the construction of access roads to villages along the way and to draw private investors into providing road services.

This brings up the following point. We are all aware of the very sad record of the Moscow Ring Road, and generally of all Central Russia’s motorways, I mean federal motorways – not country roads, but highways that are now being used primarily for access to trade outlets and facilities that have nothing to do with transport. The ensuing problems are familiar to all of us.

Now, to avoid falling into the same trap, I would like to have all the services – filling stations, camping sites, and retail outlets – built as modern facilities and be provided with slowing, exit and acceleration lanes. This, incidentally, bears a direct relationship to road safety and accident rate, because most accidents are the result of cars driving onto the road at right angles at speeds as low as 5 kilometers per hour in traffic moving at 120 kph.  

So let us be civilised and build facilities in a way that doesn’t interfere with high-speed traffic. After all, it is a matter of savings: the faster you can travel, the fewer transport hassles are experienced by our economic entities and even the export and import agencies. It is a matter of money.

Now, let us begin our discussion.