The concept of the “seasonal road” should be blessed at the federal level. The head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev, said at a meeting of the Economic Policy Committee of the Federation Council, that today there are no regulatory regulations for winter roads, which negatively affect the pace of development of the northern regions and put a “burden” on regional budgets.
The head of the subject of the Russian Federation described the problem as related to the so-called “winter roads”, seasonal roads, which apply not only to Yakutia, but also to all northern regions.
“Only at the expense of winter roads, the whole of Yakutia is connected by roads from the end of January to the beginning of April. According to them, a little less than 1 million tons of life-supporting cargo is delivered annually to hard-to-reach areas of the republic.
The President noted that the working conditions of the seasonal roads are “extremely difficult” and require a large amount of work.
The length of winter roads in Yakutia is about 10 thousand kilometers, the cost of maintenance is about 1.5 billion rubles, which is only 30% of the required standard.
But today the concept of “seasonal roads” is not included in federal legislation. Nikolaev noted that in the law “On highways and road activities” in the Russian Federation, winter roads are classified as artificial road structures.
“We propose to enact the concept of the “seasonal road” with federal law. This will ensure that funds are allocated for their regulation and maintenance in the future, including road funding.”
Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy Andrey Kutepov supported the initiative of the president and noted that the bill should be submitted to the government of the Russian Federation for discussion.
Other issues related to the transportation infrastructure of Yakutia were also discussed at the committee meeting. In particular, they discussed the Lensky Bridge and the modernization of airport complexes. Energy issues and the construction of fiber optic lines were also discussed.
The meeting of the committee in the upper house of the parliament of the Russian Federation was held as part of the Yakutia Days, which took place from December 12 to 14. The events are dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Yakut ASSR and the 390th anniversary of Yakutia’s entry into the Russian state.