TASS, December 20. City-forming and other big enterprises working in main cities of the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone are ready to participate in the design and implementation of master plans to develop those cities. Some companies have been developing or implementing such plans, TASS learned while surveying regional executives and businesses.
The list of the Russian Arctic's backbone settlements, which will be basic in the implementation of economic and infrastructure projects, contains 16 agglomerations in nine Arctic regions: for example, Murmansk, Severomorsk, Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Naryan-Mar, Vorkuta, Norilsk, Dixon, Pevek, Anadyr, and others. President Vladimir Putin has urged to use the public-private partnership mechanism, hoping the companies would be active both in the implementation of investment projects, and in offering conditions for comfortable life in those territories.
"I believe it is fundamentally important to have city-forming companies participate in development of master plans and comprehensive development plans. Based on the experience of Norilsk, I can say that 68% of all costs included in the plan have been undertaken by the businesses, and in fact the plan determines what kind of city it will be so that people came to that city and wanted to stay there. Such approaches should be to all the comprehensive plans," said Mikhail Kotyukov, the Krasnoyarsk Region's Governor, adding the region had started the work to develop master plans for Dudinka, Igarka and Dixon, taking into account the experience accumulated in Norilsk.
The Norilsk experience
The implementation of a master plan to develop one of the northernmost cities in the world - Norilsk - has been underway in the Krasnoyarsk Region for two years. The work is carried out jointly with MMC Norilsk Nickel, which continuously invests in the social and economic development of the cities of its presence. The development of Norilsk as a backbone city will require investments of about 1.5 trillion rubles ($16.6 billion) until 2035. This money has been planned in the city's development strategy. The main source of funding will be a comprehensive plan, according to which a total of 120 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) will come from the federal, regional and city budgets and from Norilsk Nickel until 2035. In addition to these investments, under the comprehensive plan, Norilsk Nickel allocates another 150 billion rubles ($1.6 billion). And the cost of implementing investment projects will make another 893.2 billion rubles ($9.9 billion).
"The four-party agreement on 120 billion rubles is being implemented fully, in the terms as per this agreement. Those are many facilities where some are at the design stage and others have passed the first stages of construction. In addition to houses, schools, kindergartens, under construction is a new ice arena, the university is being renovated and a modern student complex is being built, and as for the swimming pool - there the design is about to be completed. The big construction continues both in Norilsk and in Talnakh and Oganer, so we are only building up our potential. A week ago, we commissioned a completely new facility - a house with 90 apartments for the specialists the company invites," Nornickel's Senior Vice President, CEO of the Norilsk Division, Nikolay Utkin, told TASS.
Norilsk's Mayor Dmitry Karasev told TASS the city is ready to become a backbone city in the Russian Arctic Zone's eastern part. It is ready to be a center for the development of innovative technologies for the Arctic, it is capable to provide logistics for the development of the Taymyr Peninsula's mineral resources and it will work hard to expand opportunities for comfortable living.
The city of Vorkuta (in the Komi Region) has been built and controlled by Vorkutaugol, a coal producer. The company has undertaken to develop a master plan and its first stage has been completed. "The work featured a big team of architects and urban planners, specialists in transport, environment, economics and social studies. The team was managed by a Moscow architectural bureau. The residents were important partners in the large-scale design. At the first stage, the participants agreed fundamental approaches to Vorkuta's development. An in-depth analysis will refine those approaches," the company told TASS.
The Murmansk Region's governor, Andrey Chibis, who had initiated the idea to have backbone Arctic cities, said his region had begun to develop master plans. "I am confident our key partner businesses will participate actively in this work. We have signed and continue implementing quite serious agreements with each of these partner enterprises, and this work on the backbone cities will allow us to make long-term plans specifying who would be doing what and at what expenses," the governor said.
Plans to develop backbone cities
Russia's Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunkov told TASS that historically the backbone settlements had the strategic role in the Arctic's development. "Many fortified settlements, once built by legendary pioneers, have grown into the world's largest Arctic cities. The new era in development of the Russian Arctic, the Northern Sea Route development, and the tasks to ensure security require focused and synchronized actions. In this work, the main goal is to accelerate the development of all Far North regions and to improve the quality of life there," the minister said.
In Anadyr, the main trends in renovation of Chukotka's center will be the urban environment development, the improvement of transport accessibility, hiring qualified medical personnel, the development of small businesses and social infrastructures. "Into the comprehensive plan we would like to include the renovation of housing and communal services in Anadyr, the construction of new sewage treatment plants which is important from the environment point of view, and we want to prevent liquid waste from entering the Anadyr estuary. For better transport options we will buy a high-speed hovercraft to be used in the Anadyr estuary," Anadyr's Mayor Leonid Nikolaev told TASS.
The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region's Department of Economics told TASS the backbone settlements there would be the Salekhard-Labytnangi agglomeration, as well as Novy Urengoy and Noyabrsk. The work on a master plan will focus on an in-depth analysis of the social and economic development of the cities. Experts will identify which enterprises will operate in the city in the future and where they will have the assets and offices, as well as what logistics they will use. "Thus, we will understand which personnel will be of demand there, and who will live in the city in the future," the department said. The master plan will be aimed at shaping the image of Russia's gas capital.
Yakutia's list of backbone settlements includes the village of Tiksi and the village of Naiba in the Bulunsky District. According to deputy head of the district's administration, Vladimir Miloslavsky, the Tiksi - Naiba agglomeration will create conditions for the development of the entire district. "We continue to develop the North: Territory of Sustainable Development center and to make a test site in Tiksi in cooperation with the Mayak international scientific research center, the Northeastern Federal University, and with the Arctic Innovation Center," he told TASS.