The Russian government has preliminarily approved the federal special-purpose program to develop the country's transportation network in 2010-2015, Transportation Minister Igor Levitin told reporters after the government meeting on Thursday.
The Transportation Ministry and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry will work to improve the program by May 15 and then submit it back to the government, Levitin said.
The current program has a shortage of funds for the construction of roads and railroads, Levitin said. The shortage of funds for the construction of railroads will be covered either by revenue from higher tariffs for rail cargo transportation or by additional funds from the federal budget, Levitin said. The shortage of funds for the construction of roads will be covered by charging trucks with a weight of over 12 tonnes for using federal roads and by private investment, Levitin said.
The Transportation Ministry asked for 13.9 billion rubles to finance the entire program, including 4.6 trillion rubles from the federal budget, Levitin added.
The program envisages the launch of 4,700 kilometers of railroads, construction and reconstruction of 7,300 kilometers of federal roads and 116 runways.