In his remarks, the Minister of Transport said that the current cooperation in the construction of roads connecting Europe and Western China is based on the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan, on Cooperation and Construction of the St Petersburg - Kazan - Orenburg - Aktyubinsk - Almaty Motorway, dated September 22, 2008.
The Minister stressed that building the Europe - Western China motorway will help to promote small and medium-sized businesses, the service industry, tourism and other sectors of the economy. The construction and renovation of federal and regional roads is expected to create 15,000-19,000 new jobs in the road sector and 117,000-134,000 jobs in related industries.
The total length of the Europe - Western China motorway is 8,500 km, of which 2,200 will pass through Russia, 2,800 km through Kazakhstan and 3,400 km through China.
According to Maxim Sokolov, this road will improve road safety and reduce the number of accidents due to the improvement of driving conditions by about 30%.
This road will be based on the existing federal road network. The road will connect St Petersburg, Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Cheboksary, Kazan and Orenburg and will lead to the border with the Republic of Kazakhstan. This road will use the currently projected Moscow - St Petersburg toll expressway and the northeastern section of the Central Ring Road Motorway around Moscow (a startup facility, stage 3) and then it will be part of the M-7 Volga general-purpose highway (from a crossing with the M-7 Volga highway) at its section from the Central Ring Road Motorway around Moscow to Kazan (through Nizhny Novgorod and Cheboksary) .
