A two-fold reduction in travel time from Moscow to Kazan by the M-12 Highway will ensure an economic effect in the amount of 22 billion rubles over 5 years.
Igor Kostyuchenko, Deputy Head of the Federal Road Agency, Vyacheslav Petushenko, Chairman of the Board of Russian Highways State Company, and Sergey Morozov, Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, as well as the representatives of contracting organizations, logistics companies and the banking sector have participated In a roundtable discussion organized by Russian Highways State Company as part of Transport Week 2021.
"The highway provides for opportunities in different areas. First of all, it is mobility. During the implementation of such powerful projects, a huge effect of the opportunities is provided by the movement of both citizens and cargo for business development purposes. There are real-world examples. Tver is just 160 km away from Moscow. Before the launch of traffic on the M-11 Neva Highway, the journey from Moscow to Tver took three to four hours, and now it is an hour and a half. It will also take an hour and a half to get from the capital to Vladimir, next to which the M-12 Highway will pass," Vyacheslav Petushenko, Chairman of the Board of Russian Highways State Company, said during the discussion.
"In three years, cars will be driving along the M-12 Highway. Russian Highways State Company plans to complete the seamless high-speed North-South and West-East, and Moscow to Yekaterinburg traffic routes by 2024, and to implement the project of the highway from the Urals to the Black Sea coast by 2035, which will reduce travel time by almost 40% (to 22 hours)," these figures were announced by Sergey Pernikov, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Russian Highways State Company. He noted that connection of regional development centers by Russian Highways network is an important aspect.
In 14 years, it is planned to create a backbone high-speed network with a length of more than 7,000 km, connecting 28 Russian regions. At the moment, up to 60% of the country's population lives in these regions accounting for almost 59% of the all-Russian gross regional product.
Such an ambitious project is impossible without private investments. Russian Highways State Company uses almost all instruments to attract investments. "In 11 years, we have raised about 108 billion rubles through exchange-traded bonds. Almost half of the funds have already been returned. Now our portfolio of serviced exchange-traded bonds amounts to 65 billion rubles. And, of course, we are considering the possibility of expanding this portfolio," Sergey Pernikov pointed out.
According to Igor Kostyuchenko, Deputy Head of Rosavtodor, today, the most important stage is the "connection" of regional and federal road networks to improve the efficiency of the entire transport complex. He made a point of socially oriented transport infrastructure for the users.
Another current topic for discussion was the economic effect of the construction of the network of high-speed highways and its impact on the development of the related markets. According to Vladislav Onishchenko, President of the Center for Strategic Research Foundation, such projects contribute to the growth of industrial production and investments in integrated development of the territories, as well as to the reduction of transport costs: "A positive natural effect arises already at the stage of construction of the facility. We have such an indicator as the volume of the gross added value of construction. On average, each ruble invested in construction and installation works immediately gives us 42 kopecks to the GVA in construction, and another 90 kopecks to the GVA in related industries. If we talk specifically about high-speed highways, then from one ruble spent on them, according to various estimates, we get up to three rubles of the additional GDP".
In turn, Sergey Morozov, Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, told how the construction of the new federal highway M-12 will affect the development of the entire region. According to him, the volume of private investments in the investment projects in the orbit of the Nizhny Novgorod section of this highway will amount to more than 27.5 billion rubles by 2024. In addition, the contribution to the gross regional product will increase by almost a third. Including through the development of the roadside infrastructure.
According to Denis Anisimov, Deputy Director General of Road Construction Company Avtoban, the issue of roadside service in the operational phase of investment agreements is becoming the key for the successful implementation of an investment project. Improvement of consumer qualities of new highways is impossible without a comprehensive improvement of roadside areas. Roadside areas development is an integral factor in bringing the Russian road network to a fundamentally new level of comfort and service, and in the implementation of the National Project "Safe and High-Quality Roads".
The fact that the new road infrastructure opens up prospects for the development of the warehouse market in the adjacent territories was emphasized by Konstantin Fomichenko, Director of the Industrial And Warehouse Real Estate Department of Knight Frank, in his speech. The Central Ring Road (CRR) is already an example of this. Terminals are being intensively developed there. The main function of warehouses on the Central Ring Road is the distribution of goods between the warehouses located in the Moscow Region and other regions. The customers of these warehouse spaces are mainly retail and online companies that distribute goods, including between warehouse facilities of the regional network.
Transport load on toll roads is much lower than on public roads. As a result, the cumulative travel time for freight transport is significantly reduced, which is also facilitated by the absence of traffic lights and a higher permitted maximum speed. Accordingly, the travel time factor can offset the cost of the toll road.
"The customers of any transport company do not care what roads the car is driving by, the main thing for them is safe and timely cargo delivery at a favorable price. And, focusing on the needs of the customers, we constantly monitor and study innovations that can help to provide services with the highest quality and at the optimal time and price. The fulfillment of contractual relationships is of paramount importance. 99% of our cargo arrives safe and sound, and the same amount arrives on time. But congestions on the roads negatively affect the fulfillment of deadlines, and also entail an increase in fuel consumption and depreciation costs. Therefore, high-quality and high-speed new roads, of course, will increase logistics efficiency," Farid Madani, Director General of Business Lines Group noted.
