‘Fulfillment of an old dream’: how reconstruction of networks and facilities in Kazan going for BRICS Summit

The results of BRICS Games and BRICS+ Cities Forum were discussed in the Kazan City Hall yesterday. According to the authorities, the capital of Tatarstan coped with the organisation of events perfectly. However, Kazan is expecting another large-scale event in the near future — BRICS Summit. About the level of readiness for new challenges and the results of the past ones — in the material of Realnoe Vremya.

Readiness of the house renovation programme for the BRICS Summit is 92%

In four months, on October 22-24, the BRICS Summit is going to be held in the capital of Tatarstan, for which a large-scale reconstruction is being prepared in the city. The readiness of the programme for the repair of apartment buildings is 92%, Chairman of the Housing and Communal Services Committee Vasily Lysachkin reported.

According to him, the works have been fully completed in 34 houses. Five more buildings are to be reconstructed. For example, the house on Vishnevsky Street, 3, will be ready by June 30. The deadline was increased due to the reconstruction of the pedestrian crossing near the Gorky Park.

Four more houses belong to cultural heritage sites. They waited until the BRICS Games to finish to start the reconstruction, as they require historical and cultural expertise, project approval and permission from the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Heritage sites, Lysachkin noted.

Ilsur Metshin, the mayor of Kazan, stressed that it is already necessary to start works on these four facilities:

“We need to start works on the four remaining facilities. Moreover, they are connected with the cultural heritage of our Kazan. Please carry out this works together with the Committee for the Protection of Facilities.

Besides, a housing renovation programme is being actively implemented. This year, a total of 88 facades are planned to be renovated under two programmes, the chairman of the committee noted.

According to him, the repair of engineering networks is also underway. 602 million rubles were allocated for the reconstruction of 14 sites.

Ilsur Metshin thanked the rais of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, and the Russian government for “fulfilling a long-held dream” — the reconstruction of dilapidated networks before road repairs.

“It is difficult to overestimate the importance”

Kazan did a great job hosting the forum of BRICS+ cities, and more than 78 million people learned about the creation of the association. This result was summed up by the mayor of the city, Ilsur Metshin, during the Business Monday.

“The cities and associations of municipalities that were represented unite a population of 2.6 billion people. This is a third of the population, they participated very actively. According to the assessment of our guests, we coped with this perfectly, for which I congratulate and thank you," he noted.

The mayor also admitted that he did not expect “such activity”.

“This is not the first event in which we take part, but it is the first very large-scale event that we have been organising on our own. This is the founding meeting of the Association of BRICS+ cities. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of this event in the context of the sanctions pressure on our country," he stressed.

The International Forum was held on June 21. 18 260 cities with a total population of about 2.6 billion people joined the BRICS+ Association of Cities and Municipalities during the international forum. One of the main moments of the constituent assembly was the speech of the mayor of an Argentine city (the president of this country officially refused to join the BRICS) and the objections of the Indian and Turkish delegations. As a result, the document was adopted in its original form, but with an agreement to amend it at the next meetings.

“The city has turned into a single sports arena”

As for the BRICS Games, which finished on 23 June, 29 Kazan athletes competed for the Russian national team, Chairman of the Committee of Physical Culture and Sports of the Executive Committee of Kazan Linar Garipov said. 2,000 volunteers also participated in the competition.

“The city turned into a single sports arena, where thousands of athletes identified the strongest in 27 sports. Spectacular competitions unfolded at 15 venues, new records were set," Garipov noted.

The chairman of te committee said that many Kazan athletes won medals or entered the world tops.

“One of the hottest battles unfolded at the finals of table tennis competitions, where athletes from Russia and China met. The Russian team won in a hard fight with a score of 11:10 out of 5 games," he stressed.