TVER, July 16. /TASS/. The time en route between Moscow and St. Petersburg will be one hour shorter owing to the Tver bypass road opening on the M-11 highway, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the opening ceremony of the new highway segment.

"We talked with a colleague: I had somewhere in reference materials that traveling between Moscow and St. Petersburg will be thirty minutes quicker, while he says that one hour, about fifty minutes - and this is already noticeable," the head of state said.

Opening of the bypass will provide for "continuous, seamless, traffic lights-free speed traffic between Moscow and St. Petersburg" and that the time en route from Northwestern Russia to Kazan, Samara, Yekaterinburg and Tyumen will also be reduced, Putin said.

"It means it will be quicker to travel between large economic, cultural and historic centers," the head of state added.