September 30 – Russia’s Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko, has said that while the plans for infrastructure build in 11 cities the 2018 World Cup are unchanged, costs of construction are mounting.
The original stadium infrastructure cost was estimated at RUB 100 billion ($2.5 billion) with RUB 13.5-14 billion for each project. According to Mutko’s, right now, the government target cost of RUB 13.1 billion has only been met for the Samara stadium.
The cost of the other stadiums will all, most likely, be revised upwards. For example, the cost for stadiums in Volgograd and Nizhniy Novgorod have already risen by RUB 3.2 billion ($81 million).
According to the Russian Ministry of Economy, the construction costs will not only rise for the stadiums, but also for the planned road reconstruction. The expenses for regional and local roads already rose by RUB 3 billion ($76 million) to RUB 26 billion ($658 million). Previously, the total costs for the World Cup infrastructure build had been estimated at RUB 664.1 billion ($16.8 billion).
Construction company Stroitransgaz, part of Gennadiy Timchenko’s Volga Group, had initially agreed to build stadiums for the 2018 World Cup in Nizhniy Novgorod and Volgograd, for RUB 15 billion each.
Stroitransgaz Vadim Gurinov wrote a letter to Mutko saying that the cost of each arena might exceed RUB 20 billion. However, there has now been confirmation from government, which had estimated the cost of the build of the Volgograd stadium in the to about RUB 16.4 billion and Nizhniy Novgorod to about RUB 17 billion.
The dismantling of the current Volgograd stadium is expected to start middle of October.
Construction works in Nizhniy Novgorod will start after Stroitransgaz have signed a government contract for preliminary works – expected this week.
Russian infrastructure build and stadium construction will be a key topic at the World Football Forum in Moscow, November 13. Delegates receive a 7% discount if they quote IWF on registration. They also receive a free six-month subscription to the soon to be launched Insideworldfootball archive.
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