By Paul Nicholson in Moscow
June 12 – Russia is forging ahead with its transport infrastructure build whether there is a crisis within FIFA or not, said Nikolay Asaul, deputy minister of transport of the Russian Federation, speaking at the World Football Forum in Moscow.
“Football has no impact on our technical preparations. We are fully in line with the schedule we have prepared,” said Asaul. “There is a single integrated masterplan to develop our infrastructure.
“The political storm has no impact on our transport operations. This (the World Cup preparation) is a challenge for the entire transportation industry and can only be used as a driver for the transportation industry,” said Asaul.
The Russians are preparing a transportation plan that will carry more than 1 million people over the duration of the world cup through 11 host cities and to matches in 12 stadia in three different time zones.
The Russians expect the main load to be on air travel and the 13 airports that will be used. The average distance between stadiums is 600km, with 3,000km being the distance between the two stadiums furthest apart.
“There are large numbers of people and large distances (to travel). We have never had a project of this scale in the post-Soviet period. Sochi (Winter Olympics) and Kazan (Universiade) were in one city only,” said Asaul.
The Russians developed what they call the Integrated Operational Transport plan in 2012 via a Think Tank involving local and international transport sepcialists. The Transportation Directorate (a government organisation) will now come up with a joint masterplan by 2016.
“We visited Brazil and their plan worked but lacked a central point of transport control with no control on the federal level. We will cover this gap with a base in Moscow,” said Asaul.
Asaul also said that it was important to observe requirements as regards free carriage and also referred to the development of a single ticket travel structure.
The Russians have either begun or about to start 29 major transportation projects including work on 16 airports, 11 road networks connected airports to cities and stadia and two metrolines in St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod.
There will be a new airport in Rostov-on-Don, “which will be ready for the World Cup and will be a legacy for the city,” said Asaul.
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