MOSCOW, June 27./ITAR-TASS/. The Russian government invested 3.9 billion roubles ($11.5 million) in 2010-2013 in the deployment of accident emergency response system ERA-GLONASS, and its operator, GLONASS Union, plans to abandon state funding in three years thanks to extra commercial services, online magazine ComNews reported Friday.

“(The government) has invested 481 million (roubles) into the implementation and use of the projects starting from this year,” GLONASS Union President Alexander Gurko said on Thursday, adding that the union will get by without the state money because of the launch of commercial services.

Of the total investments into the project, purchases of equipment have consumed about 1.6 billion roubles, a representative of GLONASS Union told ComNews. The remaining 2.3 billion roubles were spent on design and use.

The investment does not include spending of the state or operators on covering federal highways North-South and West-East, Anna Aibasheva, a spokeswoman of domestic operator VimpelCom, a member of the union, said.

Russia’s most known satellite monitoring system is Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) was developed as an alternative to the US’ Global Positioning System (GPS), the EU’s future Galileo positioning system, and China’s future BeiDou positioning system.

At present, the GLONASS partnership comprises 12 companies, including state-controlled telecom giant Rostelecom, Internet company Yandex and the country’s three largest mobile operators - MTS, MegaFon and VimpelCom, operating under the Beeline brand.