The meeting of the heads of the municipalities of the Kazan agglomeration took place in the City Hall

(KZN.RU, October 19, Alsu Safina). The meeting of heads of municipalities belonging to the Kazan agglomeration was held today. An agreement was signed on cooperation and approval of the composition of the Kazan Agglomeration Council. The work within the Kazan agglomeration will be conducted in 10 directions. They discussed issues of infrastructure development, social catering, and the development of joint tourism in the territory of the agglomeration.

Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, conducted the meeting. Farid Abdulganiev, the minister of Economy of the RT, Ildar Shakirov, the deputy head of the Executive Committee, Artur Valiakhmetov, the chairman of the Committee for Economic Development, heads of the municipal districts of the Kazan Agglomeration took part in it.

“At the first meeting, we define the objectives of the agglomeration. Together we have more opportunities. Having united, we must become more mobile and learn to manage space and capital”, said I. Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan.

The Agglomeration includes 6 municipal districts of the republic in addition to Kazan: Verkhneuslonsky, Vysokogorsky, Zelenodolsky, Pestrechinsky, Laishevsky and Atninsky. At the beginning of the year, the resident population of the Kazan Agglomeration amounted to over 1.5 million people. At the end of 2017, the total gross territorial product amounted to 792 billion rubles, the volume of investments 220 billion rubles. 509 billion rubles amounted to retail trade turnover, 74 billion rubles the volume of paid services to the population. In total, 1 million 309 thousand square meters of housing was commissioned in the territory of the Kazan Agglomeration in 2017.

At the beginning of the meeting, interim results of work on the creation of a food cluster of the Kazan Agglomeration were heard. “The meaning of the project for the social catering system is the production by local producers with high-quality standards. It is a guaranteed market for the sale of products for the villagers”, said Ildar Shakirov, the deputy head of the Executive Committee.

He said that the Department of Food and Social Catering of Kazan was the first to join this work. At present, the department provides 14 thousand pupils in 120 preschool institutions of the agglomeration with a complete and varied catering.

“The favorable ecological background of the rural areas included in the Kazan Agglomeration is safe for catering to the younger generation”, said I. Shakirov. Since 2015, the Zelenodolsk bakery is a regular supplier of the department. More than 500 thousand products received from this company. The Vysokogorsky meat processing plant in 2016 supplied 150 tons of products, the OOO Pestrechinka from 2014 provided 1 million kg of chicken products. The department’s suppliers are also many other enterprises operating in the territory of the Agglomeration.

The volume of products purchased by the department exceeds 2.5 billion rubles a year. As I. Shakirov specified, 60% of the total volume of production is purchased from Tatarstan manufacturers, with plans to increase the share of local producers. “60% is a good figure,” believes the Mayor. He also suggested that the heads of the municipal districts of the agglomeration should monitor in order to understand which products need to be sold in the capital of Tatarstan.

From the beginning of the school year, the department began working with the Atninsk Agricultural Technical School to prepare cooks. They are to undergo practical training in the shops of the food factory using the modern automated equipment. Subsequently, they will be able to find a job at the plant.

In addition, the cooperation within the Kazan Agglomeration in the food cluster is realized through agricultural fairs. Autumn agricultural fairs are held at 15 sites, five fairs have already taken place since mid-September.

The organization of tourist routes with the creation of a single database of tourist and recreational infrastructure of municipalities were discussed at the meeting. Ilsur Metshin noted that tourism is a powerful catalyst for economic development. “This is a question that we put for ourselves at the forefront as a new branch of the urban economy 10 years ago”, said the Mayor of Kazan. “We are seriously advanced. This year, we will meet the 3-millionth tourist. The numbers are encouraging, but tourists stay in the capital of Tatarstan for a short time, on average for two days. “It would be great to expand the tourist geography of Kazan at the expense of the Kazan Agglomeration. We use the potential of our neighbors, Zelenodolsk district, Bolgar”, he said.

The heads of the Kazan Agglomeration regions told about natural, cultural monuments that could be attractive for tourists. For example, the Iske-Kazan Museum-Reserve in the Vysokogorsky district. This year more than 11 thousand people visited it). About 7 thousand tourists visited the ostrich farm. The Caimara village, which Emperor Peter the Great once visited. The village of Ibrya, where the S. Saydashev Museum is located, could also be taken on the tourist route. The natural riches of the area are Goluboe Lake, Semiozersky Forest, and others. In addition, a festival of Tatar folklore has been held in the region for 9 years. In the Tulpar equestrian yard, everyone can go horse riding through the woods. Alexey Afanasiev, the deputy head of the Executive Committee of the Vysokogorsky district, noted that investors are now searching for the creation of a summer recreation center on some lakes in the region.

The Laishevsky district is famous for Derzhavin places, historical monuments and the festival “Karavon” in the village of Russkoe Nikolskoye. The development of industrial tourism can contribute to the recently opened fish-breeding complex “Biosphere-Fish” in 25 km from Kazan. The beach “Kama Sea” is very popular with Kazan citizens.

“It is interesting objects and events that not only tourists, but also some Kazan residents do not know about. We have history, cultural objects, events, but they should be in the offer of travel companies”, said I. Metshin. “We need infrastructure so that when arriving in Kazan, tourists would visit neighboring areas”.

The Mayor of Kazan noted that a promising destination is camping, which is widely developed in Europe. I. Metshin marked that it is important to work out the conditions for summer holidays, including camping sites around Kazan. “We have to create conditions with the involvement of private business. The question “why don't they come?” has an obvious answer: because there is no place to connect, no place to sleep, there are unresolved issues of security and infrastructure”. He suggested, considering the economic feasibility, to go to the republican level with a project to create conditions and infrastructure for recreation and to organize campgrounds.

The joint resolution of infrastructure issues at the meeting was proposed by Ilham Kashapov, the head of the Pestrechinsky district. He noted that the district is actively developing. Now, it is in third place for housing construction in Tatarstan, after Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny. For the first 9 months of this year, 9% of the total national level was introduced. The growth of housing construction is noted in the village Kuyuki, located on the border with the Privolzhsky district of Kazan. Now the population of the village is 12 thousand people. Half of them are residents of the residential complex “Svetly”, the second half live in private houses. According to forecasts, in 2025 the number of the Kuyuki village will increase to 50 thousand people.

At the same time, the transport and social infrastructure of the village is developing not so fast. For example, the only single-lane asphalt road from the Privolzhsky district of Kazan leads to the village, and now the traffic is difficult. In addition, there is a growing need for kindergartens and schools. According to Ilham Kashapov, the solution to these problems could be the expansion of the existing road and the construction of an additional road from the Kuyuki village to the M7-Volga highway, as well as the construction of social facilities.

“Housing construction is going ahead. Taking into account the fact that up to 50 thousand people will grow, these issues need to be solved now”, said I. Metshin.