In the period July 6-17, 2013, Kazan (the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan), Russia, will host the 27th edition of the World University Games, “Universiade”, a social project involving the development of several objectives for the ensurance of sports activities.
As part of the event, the authorities have announced the participation of over 13,500 athletes and officials and over 100,000 supporters from 170 states. We cannot discuss about an event of such a dimension without mentioning the vital role of transport infrastructure. Since the games will be focussed in four areas, and the number of participants amounts to hundreds of thousands, the development of the transport system was established from the beginning by the Russian government as a “top priority”, among other projects. All the four areas must be connected to the entire transport network in Kazan, a city benefiting from an airport, railways, urban surface and underground transport. The transport system modernisation projects were initiated in Kazan since 2007, which allowed the optimisation of the urban transport, the connection of surface and underground lines (including the travel payment systems and the information systems) to ensure a single system incorporating all the means of transport.
The authorities implement important projects related to the infrastructure modernisation and development, including the extension of the underground line, the construction of over 10 terminals, transport hubs and passageways, the construction of the railway infrastructure, implicitly the renewal of the rolling stock and of the vehicles ensuring the public transport services. The modern transport systems includes a dense network of the bus, tram, trolley routes and an underground line (opened in 2005), a special attention being paid to the line extension, and the financing being greatly granted from the federal budget.
“The constructions for the line extension are carried out intensively in Kazan. Our goal has not changed: the line extension with three more stations, which must be commissioned in the following months. At present, we can discuss about two options for the new extension of the underground transport. When we have the final estimation on the passenger traffic, we will be able to decide and announce the route of the new line”, declared the mayor of Kazan, Ilsur Metshin.
At present, the line is 10.32-km long (7 stations), to which we can add the three stations to be completed. The line connects the main parts of the city and will provide access to 30 locations where the games will be held. Besides the central line, the authorities plan to build three more lines to be funded by the Federal Programme.
Likewise, for the development of the railway transport system, by the beginning of the university games, the special tram network and the railway connection between the airport and the central railway station in Kazan will be commissioned. At the beginning of the year, Gorkovkay Railways announced that it will invest another USD 33 Million in order to complete the line before the beginning of games. Last year, RUB 6.6 Billion (EUR 164 Million) was granted for this project. The project implied the modernisation of the existing line by 28 km and the construction of a new 2.8-km-long railway line in order to ensure a direct link to the airport terminal.
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