Ukraine to develop the northern European model of highways in 5 years

[News_Editor]

Ukraine to develop the northern European model of highways in 5 years

2010-12-31 09:54:16 GMT+7 (ICT)

KIEV, UKRAINE (BNO NEWS) -- Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Borys Kolesnikov - on Thursday announced that in the coming 5 to 7 years, the country will develop high-speed motorways widely made use of in the most of Europe.

Unlike the Southern European system existing in Italy, France, and Spain, which foresees the drivers paying for the use of such highways, Ukraine will follow the Northern European system. The latter was adopted by Germany, Scandinavian countries, and Switzerland, and stipulates the price for driving on an autobahn being incorporated into the fuel tax.

"There is no market for paid roads in Ukraine", said Kolesnikov, stating that the high-speed driveways will be exclusively governmental.

The Minister of Infrastructure also named the prioritized routs for constructing high-speed motorways - the first one to be taken care of would be trans-Ukrainian, a 1,400 kilometers long primary road from Krakovets to Uspenka.

It is planned to become a part of a unified highway from Berlin to Russian Rostov, but the project will be taken into consideration according to the state budget revenues for 2011.

When speaking about the frontier crossings, the Minister of Infrastructure mentioned that transporting by road is only used to the extent of 10 percent of its full capacity in Ukraine.

However, transporting by sea and by rail road is about to exceed its Soviet-time rates as the Ukraine is preparing to play an active part in transporting for Russia's preparations to host the football World Cup 2018 and the Olympics in Sochi.

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