Budget savings for road maintenance and refurbishment to be totalling over 326 billion rubles by 2030

Infrastructure development issues are among the top priorities today. But their resolution is
impossible without a productive dialog between the state and market participants. The
participants of the plenary session "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: How to Support the
Infrastructure Market in Rapidly Changing Economic Conditions" at the "Infrastructure Initiatives
of Business" forum discussed the mechanisms of support for the business community initiatives,
potential risks in the current circumstances and new prospects for expansion.
The transportation sector is among the leaders in attracting extra-budgetary funding and
applying PPP mechanisms in project implementation. It is noteworthy that the Russian
Highways State Company is the leading concession grantor in this country, with the investor
market being mainly focused on it.
Vyacheslav Petushenko, Chair of the Board of the Russian Highways State Company, told the
participants and guests of the event about the results achieved and further plans for the
development of the high-speed road system in Russia.
"Each year we see an increasing demand for our motorways from road users. In 2024, the
overall number of car trips down all the expressways under the Russian Highways State
Company exceeded 379 million, which is up 33% from 2023 And this year, we prognosticate a
further rise in traffic as well. High-speed roads of the first category, equipped with everything
necessary for the comfort and safety of users, are of great strategic value for our nation. They
bolster up investment attraction, help better unleash the potential of the neighbouring territories,
have a positive impact on the entire national economy, on the quality of life," remarked
Vyacheslav Petushenko.
The head of the Russian Highways added that during the period of implementation of the State
Company's Program of Activities (2024-2030), the savings of the federal budget for the
operation of highways will total 326.6 billion rubles. This is the cost of road maintenance, repair
and redevelopment to be covered by toll revenues. Thus, the country will be able not to spend
the public purse on these tasks, but to allocate it for the implementation of other projects vital for
the
citizens
instead.
The Russian Highways State Company plans to carry out a series of design and survey works
in the coming years, including further development of the road system along the Black Sea
coast that shows an extremely high user demand. To recap, the main southward motorway, the
M-4 "Don", accounted for the greatest number of car passes in 2024 — over 179 million, which
is up 24% from 2023
The plenary session also referred to the issues of inflationary effects and their mitigation. They
also paid attention to the topic of preferential funding as an efficient tool to cut down the cost ofinfrastructure projects.
They also discussed the topical issue of PPP in the industry as one of
the key new areas of activity.