Italian state-owned contractor Anas has been chosen to build a 729km toll road as part of a transport corridor between Moscow and the city of Kazan, via Nizhny Novgorod, World Highways reports.
The deal was reached after a meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte.
The road, which will connect Moscow with Russia’s Volga regions, had previously been priced at about $8.6bn by the Ministry of Transport. Construction started several weeks ago and will be finished by 2024.
The project is part of Russia’s State Infrastructure Programme, part of a five-year, $96bn programme of work to modernise roads, ports, airports and rail links.
About 70% of the cost of the road will be met by the Russian state and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), with the remainder to come from loans and private investors.
In addition to Anas, the project will also be built by Avtodor, Russia’s state infrastructure and highway service company.
The road, which will have two lanes in either direction, will run parallel to the existing M7 highway running from Moscow through Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan in Tatarstan and Ufa in Bashkortostan.
The RDIF and Anas previously cooperated on a $1.3bn section of the Moscow ring road.
Image: Bauman Street in Kazan (Ayrat Khairullin/CC BY 3.0)
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