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RF govt to allocate over 10 bln roubles to repair Kamchatka airport runway.

It is planned to allocate five billion roubles in 2012, and 5.5 billion roubles in 2013 for these purposes

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, September 19 (Itar-Tass) —— More than ten billion rounles will be allocated from the federal budget in 2012 and 2013 to repair the runway at the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky airport in the town of Yelizovo, the key air hub in Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka territory, Kamchatka governor Vladimir Ilyukhin said on Monday.

“It is planned to allocate five billion roubles in 2012, and 5.5 billion roubles in 2013 for these purposes,” he told journalists. In his words, project organizations have already begun to draft relevant documentation. It is planned to begin repair works in 2012.

The issue of the necessity to repair the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky airport’s runways was first raised as far back as in the 1990s but has remained unsolved ever since because the two runways were owned by the Russian defence ministry, a source in the Kamchatka government told Itar-Tass. In May 2011 however one of the runways was transferred to the ministry of transport, and repair works became quite possible.

First, it was planned to allocate 2.5 billion roubles but the sum, according to the governor, was not enough. “About 14 billion roubles are needed to repair the runway,” he said. In 2012, under a presidential instruction extra funds will assigned.

In December 2012, it is planned to transfer the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky airport to the ownership of the territorial government. According to the governor, private businesses might be invited to help overhaul the airport. In his case, the territorial government (the property ministry) will hold a 51 percent stake, and private businesses – 49 percent. “We have business structure which are ready to invest money to have the airport completely overhauled,” Ilyukhin said and added that will take three or four years to complete all the works.