MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. Responsibility measures applicable to design and implementation of master plans should improve their effectiveness, head of Yakutia's Bulunsky District Igor Kudryashov said at a session on master plans for the Russian Arctic's backbone cities, which was organized at the International Russia EXPO at Moscow's VDNKh Exhibition Center.

In 2023, the Russian government listed the Arctic's backbone cities. Those are 16 backbone agglomerations and settlements. In the Murmansk Region the backbone settlements are Murmansk and Severomorsk, the Kola Municipal District. In the Arkhangelsk agglomeration - Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk and Novodvinsk. Other backbone settlements are Naryan-Mar, Novy Urengoy, Noyabrsk, Vorkuta, Norilsk, Dixon, Pevek and Anadyr. The government faces a task to have master plans for development of the backbone settlements completed by July 1, 2024.

"Introduce measures of responsibility in work on master plans, on the implementation," the official said. "Without (responsibility) everything is not effective enough."

With responsibility, if it is introduced at the legislative level, the authors and local authorities will be more responsible in development and implementation of master plans, he added.

"The presence of a master plan does not always allow us to say for sure that the project will be launched, and we can see situations of the kind in a number of regions," said Maxim Gal of the Ministry of Construction.

Kamchatka's chief architect, Mikhail Kudryashov, noted that the task of a master plan is not only to offer high-quality infrastructures and economic solutions, but also to demonstrate to the local population real changes. Isa Magomedov, head of Derbent's Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, expressed a similar opinion, listing three conditions for the successful implementation of a master plan - the availability of resources, teamwork and political will.

Financial support

VEB.RF's Executive Director for work with the Far East and the Arctic Timur Boytemirov expressed the opinion that not all master plans should be implemented at the expense of budgetary funds. More than half of them could use extra-budgetary funding. A proof of such an interest was confirmed by an agreement signed at the Eastern Economic Forum in September between VEB and BEAC with the support from the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic on work on detailed master plans worth more than 1 trillion rubles ($11 billion). Boytemirov named the Far Eastern and Arctic Concessions as the main support tools for the implementation of projects in the Arctic zone. Those are programs that provide investors with compensations for 10-20 years after facilities are commissioned. According to the expert, VEB plans to attract experts on the Arctic to maximize the share of concession in the projects.

"Most federal subsidies are allocated depending on the population size," said Olga Vovk, the Murmansk Region's Deputy Governor. Thus, some Arctic regions are left out and cannot compete with bigger northern regions, she added. The successful implementation of master plans requires that funding sources are specified at the very beginning of work, she said, and additionally regions need to attract big investors.

Staff training and team work

At a panel session, experts agreed on the importance of active work with management teams and the training of personnel on the ground. For example, this approach explains a new professional training course "Master planning and management of territorial development in the circumpolar climate" launched in Yakutia at the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, the institute's leader of the Urbanism track Irina Alekseeva said.

The students have visited Derbent to see how a master plan is being implemented there, she continued. They visited facilities built as part of the renovation, as well as lectures delivered by practicing experts. DOM.RF's Deputy Director General Anton Finogenov told similar trips may be organized this year to Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Ulan-Ude, and Murmansk.

Alexey Kozmin, Professor at the International Academy of Architecture, and the leader of the Expert Council of the Siberian Laboratory of Urban Studies, stressed the importance of working on master plans with local teams. "It is very important to involve local teams <...> from the very beginning. They should be involved in the master plan development since they later on will be part of the implementation team," he said. He pointed to the importance of small projects that local residents propose to include in master planning, because they know better and they try to solve key problems, as well as to improve the quality of life. Mikhail Kudryashov shared the opinion that manual management is the most successful way to organize work - from a top official to a person responsible for a specific project. Master plans should be broken into several areas having expert groups, he added.

President's order

In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to work together with the regions to determine a list of backbone settlements in the Arctic and to prepare master plans for their development until 2035. The president stressed it is important to begin the practical implementation of measures in the Arctic cities from 2025 already.