‘Much more is needed’: 765m rubles not enough to repair schools in Kazan
“They are stuck in kilometre-long traffic jams”
In 2024, 13 national projects will be implemented in Tatarstan, 11 of which are in Kazan. A total of 10.1 billion rubles will be allocated for the projects. More than 7.3 billion rubles have been allocated from the Russian budget and 2.8 billion rubles from the Tatarstan budget, vice head of the City Executive Committee Ildar Shakirov said during a meeting.
According to him, the largest amount of funds have been allocated for Environment (4.9 billion rubles), Safe High-Quality Roads (1.6 billion rubles) and Health Care (1.5 billion rubles) programmes. By the end of the year, the revamp of the city's treatment facilities will be completed in Kazan under Environment national project, after which their capacity will increase by 23% — up to 650,000 cubic meters. The remediation of sludge fields is also ongoing, Shakirov emphasised.
As part of Safe High-Quality Roads national project, nine road sections with a total length of 6.3 kilometres will be repaired, as well as bridges in Konstantinovka and Kadyshevo. The 2nd stage of Voznesensky Trakt road is also being built within the programme.
“After the completion of the construction of Voznesensky Trakt, the Mamadyshsky Trakt will be relieved where residents of nearby residential areas and residential complexes stand idle in kilometre-long traffic jams every day during rush hour. It is assumed that Voznesensky Trakt will fully cope with the task assigned to it when both sections of the highway with a length of 11.3 km are opened,” Shakirov stressed.
As for Health Care project, this year it is planned to complete the construction of City Polyclinic No. 12 in Salavat Kupere residential complex, which will be the largest in the city. Its area will be 12,000 square metres. It is assumed that it will be able to serve up to 60,000 residents per month. The implementation of the work plan has currently reached 85%, the institution is planned to be opened by City Day on 30 August.
631 million rubles were allocated for equipment purchase
According to Shakirov, 631 million rubles were allocated for the purchase of equipment for the five programmes. The largest costs are required for health cfare subprojects — 406 million rubles were provided for these purposes.
Over the past year, 17.8 billion rubles were allocated for the implementation of national projects in Kazan.
“National projects are aimed at three areas: human capital, a comfortable living environment, economic growth. Thus, Environment is presented as priority of the comfortable living environment area,” the speaker highlighted.
He added that social management is a priority for the Human Capital area, and management is a priority for Economic Growth.
As the deputy head of the executive committee reported, 8.8 billion rubles of this amount were allocated from the Tatarstan budget and 9 billion rubles — from the Russian budget. In total, 65 billion rubles have been allocated for national projects in the republic since the start of 2019. 25.1 billion rubles came from the regional budget.
Construction of three schools
Another speaker, Director of the Department for the Maintenance and Service of Social Institutions of Kazan Ilya Korotikhin focused on the repair and construction of schools. According to him, at the moment, three educational institutions for a total of 3,949 places are being built in the city within state and national projects. The work is 75% complete.
It is also planned to build a mentoring school at Tatar Gymnasium No. 2 this year. Its capacity will be 270 places.
“The Mentoring School at Kazan Federal University is the centre of national education of Tatarstan and the resource pool of the World Congress of Tatars,” the director of the department emphasised. “It is planned to disseminate advanced experience in teaching in the native language for students and heads of national schools.”
Major repairs in Development of Education in Russia state programme will be carried out in six schools of the city. 765 million rubles were allocated for these purposes, but this is not enough, Korotikhin believes.
“A much larger amount is needed to carry out a full range of school repairs. However, within the framework of the state programme, about 125 million are allocated for each school, regardless of the area of the institution. Based on this, in agreement with the directors of the institutions, priority types of work are carried out, including the replacement of utility networks, repair of specialised rooms, repair of facades, entrances and the purchase of equipment and furniture,” the speaker complained.