‘See what a collapse? If we deliver another 14 million square metres of housing, we won’t have to go to Kazan’
The minister of construction of Tatarstan explained the need to reduce the planned volumes of housing construction around the capital
A master plan for the Kazan urban agglomeration proposes to cut the planned volumes of housing construction in Laishevo and Pestretsy districts in half. In the near future, the document will be presented to the governor of Tatarstan, after which it will be submitted for approval to the government of the Republic of Tatarstan. This was reported by the Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing and Public Utilities of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Ayzatullin on 7 August. The head of the Ministry of Construction also spoke about the preparation of a new republican programme for network modernisation, the development of social mortgages and the readiness of construction projects for the BRICS summit. Read more about it in a report of Realnoe Vremya.
Will the hotel towers be completed in time for the BRICS Summit?
The press conference dedicated to Builder’s Day was held in a new office of the developers of the master plan for the Kazan agglomeration — in an open terrace of the Institute of Spatial Planning of the Republic of Tatarstan (former Parus restaurant). So, in addition to beautiful panoramas, the meeting participants could also observe a number of large construction sites. In particular, the minister of construction of the Republic of Tatarstan spoke about the readiness of high-rise hotel buildings that are being erected for the BRICS Summit on the banks of the Kazanka River.
“You can see for yourself how they are growing every day, you can even see them from here. I can say that we are currently on the 14th floor of the 5th tower, which will have 16 storeys. The tower to the left will have 18 storeys. We are striving for this [to make it to the summit], we are preparing these facilities. Eight apartment hotels nearby on the shore also have a high level of readiness,” said Marat Aizatullin.
According to him, over 2,200 people are currently working at the facilities. They also promise to complete the new building of the Kamal Theatre by October. The children's park on the shore of the Kazanka should be completed in Kazan even earlier, by 30 August.
“About 7,000 people have been lost” at construction sites in Tatarstan
Today, the construction industry accounts for 7% of the republic's GRP. The projected volume of work for this year is about 791 billion rubles, including construction and production of industrial materials. Last year, construction workers ended with revenues of 708 billion (+5%), and by the end of the first half of 2024, they had reached 316 billion rubles (+25%). But this year, the industry has faced a serious labour shortage.
“We have seen a decline in the number of employees. If last year we had 92,300 people, then this year the average number of workers is 85,700 people. We have lost about 7,000 people. There are many different factors here. And the fact that the migration service is putting its work in order. And the fact that some workers from Central Asia did not come, they could not properly complete their documents. Some were deported, it is those who were here illegally. Some went into private business. Many have to be looked for, it is the same bricklayers, welders, who today work for private individuals and do not report anywhere,” the minister explained.
The average monthly salary in the industry has increased by 24% in the first six months. The housing commissioning plan is 3.1 million square metres, 2,535 million have been commissioned to date. The main share is for individual housing construction, slightly less for apartment buildings. To date, 495 permits have been issued for the construction of 4.55 million square metres of housing, which is roughly comparable to last year's figure.
This year, the construction industry has faced a serious labour shortage
“I had negotiations with developers, sales fell by about 40%. But rural mortgages have been preserved,” Marat Ayzatullin said and added that the republic has urban development potential today. “Today, together with the institute, we regulate, somewhere we even stop our builders for now, this is our Kazan agglomeration, around Kazan. I think we can still survive next year. But what plans will there be and what will be the tasks of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation? I think we will not be allowed to go below the plan. Let's hope that everything will be fine.”
About 20 billion rubles for the development of Kazan agglomeration projects
The minister also commented on the decision to halve the planned volumes of housing construction in Laishevo and Pestretsy districts of Kazan for Realnoe Vremya. Only in Laishevo District, 14 million square metres of housing were declared:
“But when the institute analysed it, it turned out that in addition to these square metres, a lot of social facilities are needed that are not provided with any financing. We analysed how construction growth would go, the institute offered to reduce it, and we agreed. Well, can you imagine the load on the Kazan-Orenburg road that leads to the airport? You see, to what kind of collapse is there in the morning? If we deliver another 14 million square metres of housing around it, we will simply not have to go to Kazan. Therefore, in order to implement all this, we first need to approach this issue with infrastructure correctly.”
A backup road and additional roads should appear in this area, which will connect with the M-12 and divert traffic flows to the M-7 motor road. “And what is the mechanism? We have a mechanism, we can review all this, it is not prohibited by law. Moreover, we are now approving all the general plans of all municipalities, so we will set these parameters there,” explained Marat Ayzatullin.
The republic is divided into three large agglomerations, and a master plan has already been prepared for the largest one — Kazan.
Almost all ministries have agreed on this document, and in the near future, we will make a report to the regional leade, after which we will submit it to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval by the government of the republic,” the minister specified.
The head of the Ministry of Construction of the Republic of Tatarstan also noted two large projects of the agglomeration Bolshoy Zelenodolsk and Laishevsky Uzel. In the first, by 2036, they plan to build about 5 million square metre, in the second — about 4.2 million by 2030. In Laishevp District, seven projects are being implemented with federal funds. These are budget loans, special treasury loans, and money from the National Welfare Fund, Marat Ayzatullin specified. The total amount of funds for the two projects is almost 20 billion rubles. These funds will be used to build main utility lines — water, sewerage, pumping stations. Gazprom is engaged in the gas pipeline.
The second stage is the preparation of the master plan for the Kama agglomeration, and similar work will be carried out in the Almetyevsk agglomeration in the future.
New republican network modernisation programme
Like during previous years, the republic is implementing 44 programmes that cover 3,405 facilities for a total of 107.2 billion rubles. This includes the construction of educational, healthcare and cultural facilities. A large share is accounted for by major repairs — 27 programmes, and 17 programmes — for construction.
Thus, this year in Tatarstan they will build 11 schools for 9,835 children: eight separate and three educational adjacent buildings, as well as 10 kindergartens for 2,200 children. 39 billion rubles will be allocated for the educational facilities.
A large programme for the improvement of public spaces is implemented. By 2023, 435 parks were renovated. This year, another 64 will be put in order for 2.3 billion rubles. 4,339 yards were renovated within Our Courtyard programme, this year the programme includes 833 courtyards for 10 billion.
Soon, another one will be added to the list of republican programmes — for the modernisation of networks. As announced by the governor of the republic and explained by the minister, it is designed to update large volumes of engineering infrastructure in the republic.
“I am not ready to talk about the parameters yet. Now we are preparing our proposal, I will not voice the numbers, but I think this issue will be resolved this week, since Rustam Minnikhanov voiced it, this is an urgent problem. We have 26,000 kilometres of networks in the republic, and we need to replace about 32%. This is 8,000 km! Can you imagine the footage? It is clear that it cannot be implemented in a year, in order to implement this, you also need to be ready. Ready with design documentation, materials and contractors. Because today there is a problem with welders and fitters,” noted Marat Ayzatullin.
How social mortgage and rental housing programmes are implemented
This year, volume of the programme is like last year: about 160,000 square metres of housing. “Of course, if you compare it with ten years ago, when they built 400-600,000 a year, these are two different figures,” noted the head of the Ministry of Construction. “Today, there are 53 houses in the plan. All those who need it will receive an apartment.”
Answering a question about the construction of rental housing, he recalled that the first houses under the program were built two years ago. “The Housing Fund also has rental housing. We are working with them and municipalities. This is one of the priority areas. There are legislative issues there, when we regulate them, we will work more actively on rental housing.”