Before entering the pumping station's territory on the banks of the Volkhov River, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid flowers to a monument dedicated to the Red Army soldiers who lost their lives during the Great Patriotic War.

He then examined the new pumping station, which was built with 500 million roubles in budget funds. The budget allocations for the modernisation programme of Veliky Novgorod's utilities infrastructure totalled about 1.6 billion roubles in 2008-2010.

According to the governor, the development of utilities infrastructure makes it possible to increase the commissioning of new housing by 2 million square metres.

"You have lifted infrastructure restrictions, haven't you?" Putin asked.

"Yes, we have," the governor replied.

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After a visit to the pumping station, Vladimir Putin unexpectedly stopped in one of the neighbourhoods.

"Frankly, we prepared a different neighbourhood, but this one is very much like the one that we selected," Novgorod Governor Sergei Mitin admitted.

The prime minister said the neighbourhood looked "quite nice." He then pointed to the new parking lots.

"Yes, we are working on it, parking is a serious problem," the governor said.

Putin also saw a development project nearby and asked about housing costs in the city.

"From 31,000 to 42,000 roubles per square metre, depending on the building's class and outlay, but mostly 33,000-34,000 roubles," Mitin replied, adding that the development that Putin saw was a "higher than average" class project.

Afterwards, Putin was driven to the Novgorod Kremlin where he visited the Millennium of Russia monument. The governor said that Russia will celebrate 1150 years as a state next year and proposed holding celebrations in Veliky Novgorod.

"We will think about it," Putin replied.