Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov has visited the Far Eastern State Transport University, where he examined labs and the university’s museum.
At a meeting with the University’s students and faculty, Mr Sokolov spoke about the Ministry’s plans in the area of transport education, and answered questions from students on the future development of the BAM railway and the development of air services in the Russian Far East.
Later in the day, Mr Sokolov chaired a meeting on regional air transport development, suburban railway services and transport infrastructure development in the Russian Far East through public-private partnerships.
At the meeting, Mr Sokolov spoke about a government support programme for local airlines’ passenger services, which includes federal funding of such services, subsidies for federal state air companies established at regional and local airports, for flights from the Russian Far East and Siberia to central Russia and back, and for leasing aircraft that companies use to expand domestic air services.
The meeting participants also discussed the possibility of using extrabudgetary sources for transport infrastructure projects. The Khabarovsk Territory is one of the first regions in the Far Eastern Federal District to use public-private partnerships in this sector. It is implementing two major PPP projects, regional minister for economic development and external relations Viktor Kalashnikov said: the construction of a bypass road around Khabarovsk and the modernisation of the Novy International Airport.
The Ministry views PPP projects as a top priority, Mr Sokolov said, and will help provide funding for the bypass project as soon as the project specifications and estimates, and the financial model, are worked out.
Source: Ministry of Transport
