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Federation Council speaker: Norilsk development plan will be implemented despite problems

Several new houses have been built, and by the end of the year more houses will be commissioned, and people will move there from dilapidated housing

NORILSK, February 29. /TASS/. The tasks of the comprehensive social and economic development plan for Norilsk (the Krasnoyarsk Region) to 2035 will be fulfilled, despite the existing problems, the Federation Council's Speaker Valentina Matvienko told reporters during a business trip to Norilsk.

"Sure, there are apparent difficulties. We are in the permafrost zone. The construction sector is facing many problems: the thawing ice, necessary works to change pile construction technologies, and so on, but all is doable," she said.

Several new houses have been built, and by the end of the year more houses will be commissioned, and people will move there from dilapidated housing. "Today, we have seen a cheerful event, when Norilsk Nickel's specialists received certificates to move into a renovated house. Nearby will be a kindergarten, a new big school for 1,100 students - it will be named after Vladimir Dolgikh, who has built this plant. There will be a big modern polyclinic - for children and for adults, a women's consultation facility, and many other things, including the university's upgrade," she added.

All the listed facilities are "objectives on the plan." During the trip, the speaker inspected the first renovated house, and participated in the ceremony where the specialists, invited to work in Norilsk, received certificates to live in a renovated house.

Nornickel's President Vladimir Potanin noted that at the first stage of a large-scale environmental project, the Sulfur Program, the company faced difficulties associated with the sanctions pressure and with refused equipment and software supplies. "Here comes a less heroic, though no less important moment for the city (the implementation of the renovation program - TASS). Like Valentina Matvienko has said, it should confirm that the life of people who work here and make Norilsk a stronghold of Russia in the northern territories, the Northern Sea Route, must be at good levels," the company's president said. The housing renovation program, infrastructure upgrades, and the cleanup of the city from waste and scrap metal are aimed at that goal.

Vladimir Erokhin, deputy head of the project office for the implementation of comprehensive measures to develop Norilsk, told TASS that special equipment keeps thawed soils frozen. In winter periods, due to frosts and strong winds, construction works have to be suspended, he added. At some sites such suspension periods have made up to 20% of the working time, he added.

How to use gained experience

The region's Governor Mikhail Kotyukov emphasizes the program's federal status. "It is a project that should show a new quality of life in the north. We need to find new construction technologies to create modern facilities. We need to agree production plans to see how the city will develop," he said. The experience of renovation in Norilsk can be used both in other cities of the region and in other regions across the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone, he said.

On December 10, 2021, the Russian government adopted a comprehensive plan for Norilsk's social and economic development. It includes demolition of emergency housing, housing construction (upgrade), thermal stabilization of soils under apartment buildings and social facilities, reconstruction and upgrade of collector facilities, and development of social infrastructures.

Under the plan, investments in Norilsk's development to 2035 will make 120.1 billion rubles ($13 billion), where 24 billion rubles ($261 million) come from the federal budget, 14.8 billion rubles ($161 million) - from the Krasnoyarsk Region's budget, and 81.3 billion rubles ($885 million) - from the Norilsk Nickel Company. By 2035, about 400,000 square meters of housing and a number of social facilities will be built in the city.