Rustam Minnikhanov: “It is very important when good words are said about us, it's about your work!”

(KZN.RU, February 28). The program of overhauling yard territories will continue in Kazan. Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the RT, confirmed this at the session of the Kazan City Duma. He considers it necessary to involve managing organizations in the improvement of territories: HOAs, HBCs, and management companies.

“Until recently, this problem seemed unaffordable. But thanks to the support of the republic, Kazan has started a large-scale repair of yard territories starting from 2011”, said Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, speaking with a report. He drew attention to the fact that last year an unprecedented amount of 1 billion rubles was allocated for these purposes, 340 households and 46 driveways were repaired. It is also planned to allocate 1 billion rubles this year. 430 yards on an area of 457 thousand square meters will be renovated and landscaped. “All this directly concerns 340 thousand Kazan, or every fourth inhabitant of the city”, marked Ilsur Metshin.

He also noted that children's playgrounds, bars, recreation areas for the elderly, flower gardens, and green spaces appeared in 296 yards.

“When we carry out all these works, it is important that both HOAs and HBCs take part”, said the President of the RT. It is necessary to involve management companies in order to tidy up the territory itself so that careful treatment of it is formed.

“Your initiative to regulate yard territories is important. We can do anything but we can lose all this very quickly if there is no legislative base. Your initiative was right, and we will support it”, said the President.

“1255 yards require repairs. Even if we do 400 yards, we need at least 3 more years to fix it. I think we will continue this program”, said the President of the RT.

In general, 38 programs will be implemented in Tatarstan this year, the main ones of which concern Kazan. “A lot has been done in the city. There are things we agreed upon. After something has changed somewhere, people's requests have become different. They want more and more beautiful, they want that it would be everywhere. Therefore, we should take this calmly and move forward on all these issues”, said Rustam Minnikhanov. In particular, he urged to pay attention to the quality of provision of housing and communal services and the work of management companies.

“The quality of life is determined by the state of public transport”, believes R. Minnikhanov. “Kazan electric transport should be praised. Today we took a trolleybus”, said the President. “15 trolleybuses, 10 trams, the metro station should open, the city decided to buy buses”. Public transport of Kazan transported 257.3 million passengers in 2017.

“Today’s statistics is: 85% of cars in the city is a ballast. They block the yards, they are not used. Therefore, we must make public transportation a priority. People should understand that bike paths, public transport, and other forms should be implemented in our work”, said Rustam Minnikhanov.

He also shared his impressions of the visit to Evdokia Soldatova, a 100-year-old woman from Kazan. “She is perfectly oriented in everything. This is an example of a family, how they treat each other carefully. Granddaughter proudly lives with her. Sons are also close”, noted R. Minnikhanov. He said that 174 Tatarstan citizens are over 100 years old in the republic, 64 of them live in Kazan. “We must carefully consider the needs of the older generation, respect them”, urged the head of the republic.

Rustam Minnikhanov thanked the city authorities for the work done. According to him, it’s pleasing when guests come to Tatarstan and its capital and leave positive feedback. One of these recent guests was John Huntsman, US Ambassador to Russia. “It is very important when good words are said about us, it's about your work. It's you fellows. Many thanks to all of you”, said the President of the RT. “I hope that thanks to your active position, the flag of our capital will also be high in the scale of Russia”.