‘We’re afraid if we will be at work on time’: access for lorries required to be banned in Kazan
Such a decision can be made because of consequences of heavy snowfall
Residents of Kadyshevo settlement in Kazan complained about some accumulation of lorries on their road from time to time because they cannot go uphill due to the snowfall and snowy streets. People have to stay in traffic jams when commuting. The city administration claimed that they were going to consider closing the road for lorries. However, as head of the Committee for Cargo Transportation of the Tatarstan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergey Sotnikov says, this is the simplest salutation that can be taken. In his opinion, the authorities should firstly resolve the issue of snow removal, not close the entrances. Read in Realnoe Vremya’s report about how citizens of Kazan are suffering because of the lorries and what other decisions the authorities should make.
“For the first time”
Resident of the settlement Natalya complained that the situation of lorries that are stuck there is addressed slowly and poorly. While lorries regularly accumulate on the road.
“We are afraid every time if we will be at work on time.”
Local resident Anna says she has faced such a situation for the first time in 10 years. She has been regularly commuting to Kazan to work during all this time, this never happened.
“Entrance closure has a negative impact on everybody”
As head of the Committee for Cargo Transportation of the Tatarstan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergey Sotnikov explained to Realnoe Vremya, road closure is a decision of traffic police, such decision are made depending on the situation on the road. He noted that at this moment both the city authorities and traffic police are playing it safe, they are starting to panic because of every snowflake.
“Entrance closure has a negative impact on everybody, lorries transport perishable products, food and equipment. The longer the vehicles stay idle, the more our economy loses. It seems to me that it is necessary to make a specific decision, not to close and ban the entrance as soon as possible. Weather conditions should be considered first, special services should deal with this and solve these problems. Roads are sometimes closed for 2-3 hours unless they are cleaned from snow,” Sotnikov said.
The expert added that correct conclusions were drawn after the snowfall because closing and banning entrance is the simplest solution. And not cargo carriers but the economy suffers from the situation when drivers do not transport cargo, the damage from such decisions is greater than from a simple ban.
“It is necessary to use more special machinery, cope with snow hills because it is a mess because there is no place to remove snow to. It had been removed to the fields for decades, and now environmental norms were adopted and snow started to be melted down. However, it is necessary to understand that this is impossible physically, this amount cannot be melted down. There is a reason for it, come up with temporary storage areas, use equipment, allocate money for this. It is discussed that tens of billions should be allocated for a road or an embankment, while people’s needs are not discussed. The priorities aren’t fully clear,” the specialist said.