OREANDA-NEWS The cost of construction of the Moscow-Kazan high-speed toll highway will be about 550 billion rubles, first Deputy Minister of transport of the Russian Federation Innokenty Alafinov told reporters.

"The cost of the Moscow-Kazan road project is about 540-550 billion rubles, of which at least 30% will be private investment," Alafinov said. He explained that we are talking about the segment without taking into account the construction of the road bypassing Togliatti, which has an independent transport value and is considered as a separate project.

It is planned to build the track in the next six years. "There are no doubts about the possibility of implementing this project, provided that we start very quickly, literally from the end of December in the active phase," Alafinov said.

He explained that the state company "Avtodor" will begin to design the highway Moscow-Kazan in early October. Thisalready has experience in creating a similar route - M-11, connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The cost parameters and the volume of investments are determined, the length of the routes is similar, said the first Deputy Head of the Ministry of Transport.

The section of the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Kazan highway with a length of 729 km is included in the comprehensive plan of modernization and expansion of the main infrastructure until 2024 and is part of the Europe - Western China corridor.

Another project included in this corridor is a bypass of the city of Togliatti with a bridge across the Volga river, which is estimated at more than 87 billion rubles.

The Head of the Government Dmitry Medvedev on 25 September approved the plan for development of transport infrastructure, which includes construction of the highway Moscow — Kazan. On the same day, the head of "Avtodor" Sergey Kelbach said that by 2024 the company plans to build a toll road that will connect Moscow and Kazan. He said that the construction of the highway will begin in October