Lukashenko on transport infrastructure improvement: exclusively state interests need to be met

The improvement of the transport infrastructure in the country should meet exclusively the country’s interests – as stated by President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko at today’s meeting with the leadership of the Council of Ministers

One of the issues considered at the meeting tackled the improvement of transport infrastructure. The Head of State noted that, more than a year ago, an investor proposed to create a single national operator: in particular, to unite all the intelligent transport systems available in the country (toll roads, the parking system, the weight and size control, and the violation photo recording system).

“It was instructed to work out this topic in detail in the Government – naturally, with focus exclusively on the state interests, so that the situation would at least be better than it is now and financially profitable. After all, if we decide to ensure digital transformation of our transport infrastructure, then this should be done in the most advanced and convenient way for people. For example, everyone knows that we have complete chaos with parking, especially in the capital," the President stressed, adding that no payment discipline actually exists in Minsk: citizens often do not pay for parking or leave their cars in places where it is not allowed to do this. At the same time, no proposals have been made so far on how to develop this payment discipline.

According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the situation is similar with respect to the weight restrictions on roads. “Supervisors annually identify tens of thousands of violations, but this sphere is related to the safety of our roads, which heavy vehicles simply destroy. Therefore, the main question is whether a single national operator will be able to really strengthen road and public safety, increase financial and technological discipline. If so, how much investment will be required to implement the project? What is the payback period? Have future budget revenues been calculated? Where will we take money from? So far, I see that there is no clear answer to these questions,” he said.

The Head of State also asked to report on what benefits the proposed consolidation of systems will bring to the country, how reliable the economic effects predicted by the investor are, “Or an increase in tariffs is the main growth factor in his business plan? I am also waiting for explanations, due to which it is possible to achieve budget savings, which the investor claims.”

photos: www.president.gov.by