I. Metshin: “We need to prepare for the World Cup-2018 so that Kazan would be called the cleanest city”

(KZN.RU, April 19, Ekaterina Vislavskaya). Kazan should be literally covered with flowers for the upcoming World Cup, and guests should remember it for cleanliness, hospitality, and well-being. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, expressed this opinion during the detour of Kazan streets, which was held the day before. The head of the city instructed the Executive Committee to strengthen the preparation of the external appearance of the city for the meeting of the participants and fans of the World Cup-2018, as well as to attract business and city residents to this work.

The Mayor examined the facades of some houses and sites on the streets Kremlevskaya, Bauman, Tatarstan, G. Kamal, Astronomicheskaya, Pushkin, and Chistopolskaya, where new graffiti and art objects could be placed for the World Cup-2018 at the suggestion of Zhanna Belitskaya, the head of the Department of Urban Planning. In general, the Mayor approved the idea, but he instructed not to forget about the current maintenance of the facades of buildings, fences, and roads. I. Metshin recalled that the improvement of the city is held every year at the end of the winter. However, all work must be completed in a short time due to the championship that starts in two months.

Igor Kulyazhev, the deputy head of the Kazan Executive Committee and the chairman of the Committee for External Improvement, reported on the progress of the two-month cleanup and cleaning of the territory from April 1 to May 31. Now, most of the work is done by contractors working in the field of housing and communal services and improvement. The main emphasis is on clearing the street and road network, the elements of the arrangement, cleaning the green areas along the public roads and cleaning the yard areas. For today, roads and sidewalks of 10 million square meters are cleaned of dirt, or 50% of the plan. Fences with a length of 55 thousand linear meters and 130 bus stops were cleared, 550 households were put in order. Streets of Kazan are cleaned from 98 thousand cubic meters of various kinds of waste. By the end of May, it is planned to bring in a proper condition 20 million square meters of roads, 17 million square meters of green areas, 300 hectares of the territory of urban parks and squares, more than 4 thousand yards, 160 km of fences, 550 bus stops, 1.2 thousand lighting poles, 12 thousand traffic signs, and 336 traffic lights.

“Of course, city enterprises have a special responsibility, which are engaged in current maintenance”, noted I. Kulyazhev. “There is a big request to the business, which has its buildings, territories, facades, to put them in order, so that Kazan could properly meet the guests of the World Cup”.

One of the points in the detour route was a site on the corner of streets Iskhaki and Chernyshevsky. The fence, which closes the vacant territory, is covered by branded banners with the symbols of Kazan. The Mayor of Kazan asked if it was tidied up behind the fence. Then he went to the 5th floor of the hotel across the road, the rooms in which the guests of the championship book. Looking out the window, he instructed the management company to bring the territory behind the fence in order. “We will carry out the subbotnik, we will paint everything”, promised the employees of the hotel.

Summing up the meeting, the Mayor ordered to continue the intensified preparation of the city for the World Cup. In particular, he urged for attracting entrepreneurs to the improvement of their enterprises. “During the Universiade, Kazan excelled in purity and a large number of flowers. Think about what can be done to Kazan so the people would say “the cleanest, most hospitable city”, he instructed.

Damir Fattakhov, the first deputy head of the Kazan Executive Committee, Iskander Giniyatullin, the deputy head of the Executive Committee and the chairman of the Housing Committee, Alfir Shamsutdinov, the head of the Department of Administrative and Technical Inspection, Zhanna Belitskaya, the deputy head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Timur Alibayev, the head of the Aviastroitelny and Novo-Savinovsky districts’ administration, Sergey Mironov, the head of the Kirovsky and Moskovsky districts’ administration, Airat Akhmadullin, the first deputy head of Vakhitovsky and Privolzhsky districts’ administration, Rosa Zabbarova the manager of the MUP trust “Gorvodzelenhoz”, and others also attended the event.

The World Cup will be held from June 14 to July 15. Kazan will host six matches for the group stage, 1/8 and 1/4 of the finals. 39 road sections, 83 city streets, 14 sidewalks and 59 streets in residential areas will be repaired in the city. By the World Cup-2018, experts plan to plant about 23 thousand square meter flower beds on the streets of the city, 3 thousand pots and flower pots, plant 3.7 thousand trees, 20 thousand shrubs, and lay a lawn on an area of 7.5 thousand square meters.