Only a third of orders for excavation works closed in Kazan — will this hinder preparations for BRICS Summit?

“The rate of closing permits is lower than the rate of issuance. This may lead to an increase in the number of unrestored sidewalks, roads and lawns, which creates serious inconvenience for city residents,” deputy head of the executive committee Ildar Shakirov expressed his concerns. According to him, this may hinder preparations for the BRICS Summit, which will be held on 22-24 October. Read about what other violations of landscaping are recorded in the capital of Tatarstan in a report of Realnoe Vremya.

Violators of landscaping rules were fined 350 million rubles

From January to July this year, more than 135,000 cases of various violations of city landscaping rules were considered in the capital of Tatarstan. This is 53% higher than the same indicator for 2023. The amount of fines issued to violators has reached 350 million rubles, Deputy Head of the Executive Committee Ildar Shakirov said at a meeting in the Kazan City Hall.

“The electronic system for finding debtors developed by the Centre for Urban Transformation has proven itself to be successful. It allows us to search for vehicles of malicious violators,” the speaker said.

According to him, in 2024, seven cars of offenders were arrested in this way, whose total debt exceeded 670,000 rubles.

“The automatic recording of violations is the reality”

Most often in Kazan — over 130,000 orders — they punish for violations recorded by special technical means in automatic mode. As Shakirov said, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in Kazan to monitor compliance with landscaping rules.

He put an example: in April, a video recording system for lorries transporting bulk cargo without canopies was announced. Since July, 45 cameras have been operating. The devices have recorded over 6,000 violations. To date, almost 1,700 of them have been reviewed. Car owners have been fined more than 21 million rubles, the speaker added.

In addition, as part of the experiment, the city expanded the software base of automatic systems that record violations, Shakirov said. Now the cameras also monitor cars that create obstacles for the movement of cleaning and special equipment. 48 cases of illegal parking have already been recorded and fines for 234,000 rubles have been issued. This is just the beginning, the speaker assured the audience.

“We continue working on using AI to monitor compliance with city improvement rules. A system that can automatically record violations in the maintenance of building facades and adjacent areas is already being trained,” Shakirov emphasised.

“The automatic recording of violations by artificial intelligence is the reality. I ask to take an even closer look at this work in terms of funding, how and with what we can strengthen this area,” said Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin.

The rate of closing permits for excavation work is lower than the rate of issuance

Excavation work in Kazan has become a problem. In the first seven months of 2024, 1,520 orders were issued for them, only 561 of which were closed. 401 protocols were drawn up for these violations, Shakirov complained.

The rate of closing permits is lower than the rate of issuance. This may lead to an increase in the number of unrestored sidewalks, roads and lawns, which creates serious inconvenience for city residents and negatively affects the city's preparation for the upcoming international forum, he said.

The deputy head of the executive committee emphasised that both the summer campaign to repair underground networks and preparations for the BRICS Summit are close to completion and it is necessary to improve all excavation sites in a timely manner.

Metshin instructed the head of the executive committee Rustem Gafarov “to carry out this work separately, including with managers and, possibly, bypassing.” The most important thing is to determine the date when the improvement will be completed. The mayor will expect a report on the state of the road map on 7 September.

As for construction work, at the moment in Kazan there are more than 120 sites with varying degrees of readiness, Shakirov said. This year, 89 reports on violations were compiled. Most often, the problem was the maintenance of fences and failure to clean the adjacent territory. Control over the removal of dirt from construction sites will be strengthened in connection with the imminent onset of the autumn season, the speaker promised.