Authorities have postponed the launch of the Kerch railway bridge for a year – RBC

Building a working bridge across the Kerch Strait

Photo: Sergei Bobylev / TASS

The government moved the starting date of the temporary operation of the railway bridge across the Kerch Strait on December 1, 2019. State contract transferred to treasury support, which should get rid of the delays in funding

The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree that shifts the start time of the operation of the railway bridge across the Kerch Strait on December 1, 2019. The document was approved by the government on July 5 it was published on the official web portal of legal information.

It was originally supposed, that the beginning of the time of operation of the railway line built on a bridge in the Crimea will begin December 18, 2018. These terms have been indicated by the Government on January 30, 2015. That document also approved LLC “Stroygazmontazh”, controlled by Arkady Rotenberg (75 th place in the ranking of the richest businessmen of Russia, according to Forbes, assessment of the state – $ 1 billion), as the sole contractor of works on the construction of the bridge

. approved July 5 document also approved the transfer of the project on construction of the bridge Kerch on treasury support. This method of financing allows the state to directly control the flow of funds.

The fact that the construction of a railway bridge Kerch segment will be completed within the scheduled time, wrote the agency Reuters in April. P redstavitel Rosavtodor agency explained that the construction of the railway bridge takes longer and technically more difficult than the construction of a road bridge. “In this regard, the bridge builders lay some more time to build the railway part of the bridge, and plan to open movement of trains until the end of 2019″, – said the representative of the Federal Road Agency

In early June, Forbes reported that the financing of the construction of the Kerch bridge goes. with delays. General Director of “Stroygazmontazh” Andrei Kirilenko in late May, wrote a letter to the first deputy head of the Ministry of Transport Eugene Dietrich, and the head of the Federal Road Agency Roman Starovoit, which complained about the delay of payment is already completed works, wrote and the building with reference to the existing text of the letter.

According to the newspaper, the letter stated that a company can not build a bridge essential themes and to invest in the purchase of expensive construction equipment due to delays in funding. Kirilenko pointed out that the Ministry of Transport and Road Service can not resolve the issue of payment to February 2016.

In turn, the representative of the Ministry of Transport explained that the planned for 2016 amount for the project has already been allocated from the budget, but to spend the money It will be possible only in the transition to treasury support. He noted that all the changes will be approved by the Government before the end of June.

President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the delay in financing the construction of the bridge, has expressed confidence that the problem will soon be resolved. He thus pointed out that the Kremlin does not have details of the construction process, as this issue has been the government.