By Duncan Mackay
December 4 – A massive infrastructure project has been launched in Russia to ensure that the country is ready to host the 2018 World Cup.
Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s Sports Minister and chairman of Russia 2018, has held a series of meetings in Moscow the 11 cities that are due to host matches to see what they require.
A list of more a thousand projects will now be drawn up and put forward for funding.
It is estimated that Russia will spend up to $19 billion (£12 billion/€14 billion) on preparing for the tournament, half of which will come from the Government and the rest from private funding.
The meetings were attended by the heads of regional Ministries involved in preparations for the tournament, the chief executives of city councils, experts from the Russia 2018 and representatives of the relevant Federal Ministries and Government departments.
The list of facilities included in the investment programme includes stadiums, training sites, team bases, airports, road infrastructure, hotels, security infrastructure, public utility and medical infrastructure, communications and information technology infrastructure, environmental facilities and the facilities required for the fan festivals.
In total, the preliminary list for the investment programme covers1,020 facilities.
The final list of facilities which will receive funds under the investment programme will be submitted to the Russian Government for its consideration.
The investment programme is scheduled to be approved in the spring of 2013.
In selecting facilities and projects for inclusion in the investment programme, specialists from the Ministry of Sport and Russia 2018 will be focused on striking a balance between considerations of cost, tournament quality and legacy, Mutko said.
As a result, the designs for the stadiums in some of the host cities will be based on using prefabricated structures, in order to meet the capacity requirements for the 2018 FIFA World Cup stadiums.
These structures will be dismantled once the tournament is over, so that stadium capacities can be reduced to reflect the requirements of the host cities.
The same approach will be applied to the reconstruction of airports in a number of cities. In order to ensure the required throughout capacity, organisers are considering using temporary passenger terminals.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to put the infrastructure in place by the 2018 World Cup,” said Mutko.
“Delivering this programme successfully will guarantee a massive legacy in the form of modern sports, transport and general infrastructure for many generations of Russians.
“But making sure that the infrastructure is used effectively once the tournament is over is something we need to concern ourselves with right now, while the facilities are still being planned and designed.”
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