Ufa to be prepared for its jubilee for 215bn rubles

Large-scale construction and parks

The budget for the preparation for the jubilee will total 215 billion rubles. 89,2 billion rubles will come from the federal budget, 44,3 billion will from the republican, 15,1 billion — from the urban. Another 66,7 billion will be business investments. Sergey Grekov paid attention to the fact that the biggest sum, 115,5 billion rubles, would be spent on large-scale construction of new facilities in Ufa:

“We have been talking about the upcoming jubilee for a long time, but we haven’t yet got down to work specifically. Rady Khabirov just recently voiced a list of federal facilities that would appear by the 450^th jubilee of Ufa. We included those buildings that will be built into Large-Scale Construction block. Here, it is such important places as a world-class scientific and educational centre, the Wrestling Centre, Eurasian Library, which will be built on the Yuzhny slope, Gorodishche Ufa-2 storage that will be erected on Pushkin Street, a complex of rowing slalom buildings in Inors, the Fencing Centre and so on.”

92,1 billion rubles are planned to be spent on beautification, transport, housing and utilities, environment. Special attention is paid here to the renewal of old and construction of new parks and public spaces.

“You know what attention we paid to the construction of parks. A new park will be built almost in every district of the city. We have started designing Petrochemists’ Park in Chernikovka. This will create a new point of attraction that will connect Victory Park and Pervomaysky Park. We are holding talks with an investor to reconstruct Stroitel Stadium, which is at Petrochemists’ Park. We believe that we will create a new big centre of activity in this place. A boulevard and fountain will be restored here. The design of Central Park has begun in Dyoma. The works will begin in 2022. The park of Lake Tyoply in Inors, Yuzhny Square, which we have completed this year, Volna Park, which we continue working on, we have finished two stages this year, we will start the third stage next year,” Sergey Grekov stressed.

Khimprom, schools and cultural heritage sites

Sergey Grekov named land improvement on the territory of the abandoned Khimprom factory one of the key tasks the city has before the jubilee. The sludge tanks of the enterprise still contain dangerous substances. According to him, the accumulated environmental damage needs to be eliminated.

“Khimprom is a big problem, of course. The talks are held, the parcel has been examined, we will receive the result shortly. I am sure, Mrs Radionova will include us in the land improvement programme in this facility. It is an important facility for the city, a sore point of Ufa, I believe we will actively deal with it by 2024,” the city mayor promised.

Collapsing historical architectural monuments in the city centre are another problem. People still live in many of them. Residents of old houses need to be resettled, the houses need to be restored. Sergey Grekov announced cooperation with private investors that would help to quickly fix the problem:

“Cultural heritage sites are our lasting pain. I am sure that we will be able to considerably transform them by 2024. First of all, it is October Revolution Street, of course. We are holding talks, I am sure the federal centre will give us money to improve this street and reconstruct the road from facade to facade. We are improving the territories that are outside the street. The city is rehousing the houses. They will be sold to private investors via tenders. I believe that each of these houses will find their investor and will be renovated. This is also a big job. The house must be not only repaired and regain the initial appearance but also regain the soul.”

The lack of social infrastructure in the city is another problem that needs a solution. Some Ufa districts lack schools, while existing educational establishments, especially near new residential complexes, are at times full.

“Nowadays we participate in a new federal school construction programme. 13,500 school spots must be created by 2024. This is really much, we believe many schools will switch from two-shift to one-shift mode. The Education Ministry is announcing the same programmes in kindergartens and children camps,” Sergey Grekov said.

Work with businesses, citizens and deputies

Talking about businesses’ investments, Grekov emphasised that developers make the main contribution. It is planned to build a lot of facilities at investors’ expense by 2024, some have already started to be built.

“Talking about businesses’ investments, first of all, it is our developers. They build new comfortable houses in our city. If we deliver 700-800,000 square metres of housing a year, consequently, we understand what a sum will be invested in it until 2024. For instance, it is the money that were invested in the construction of a fitness and health centre on Mendeleyev Street, the works have already begun. It will also be built by 2024. It is private hospitals, health institutions, the Contemporary Art Museum, which private investors plan to build too, it is the development of Art-KVADRAT and transformation of cultural heritage sites,” the head of the Ufa city administration said.

The city mayor stressed the necessity of cooperation with active Ufa citizens. According to him, it is important to take their ideas into consideration because they often know problems of the city better than functionaries:

“We work with our active citizens. We try to engage as many people as possible in those facilities we are building. I am sure that our citizens will offer new interesting ideas that we will need. Our citizen lives on earth, he perhaps knows the territory he walks on several times a day better than we do.”

To control the deadlines and course of construction, Sergey Grekov offered City Council deputies to become supervisors of different facilities that are built and reconstructed:

“Our meetings will be regular, I will report on those projects, facilities we are working on once in a quarter, not in general but specifically. Federal facilities operate at republican level. Thank God, there is supervision there, there is work, I am sure they will be delivered. We should deal with urban facilities, financing of urban facilities or investors.”