![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
INSFRASTRUCTURES * Russia: Missed out on chance to improve its roads
Infrastructure spending rose during boom times but failed to trickle down to the roadways partly due to graft. The abysmal network has become a drag on the economy and a horror story for truckers
Vasilevo,Russia -The Los Angeles Times (CAL,USA), by Megan K. Stack -July 14, 2009: -- Truckers with empty tanks or bellies stop here in this hamlet between Moscow and St. Petersburg, climb to the ground, stretch their legs and poke a cigarette between their lips... The drivers are worn out from grinding over the potholed, shoulder-less, often two-lane ribbon that is, improbably, Russia's main commercial thoroughfare. They haul the parts and pieces of a vast economy -- chicken legs, coils of rope, dinner plates -- over roads so jarring the cargo is often damaged before it arrives... Nobody is more keenly aware of the corroded state of Russia's transport infrastructure than the country's truckers, who earn their pay traversing broken highways and improvising where roads don't exist... And so there was a sense, critics say, that there was no rush. The money was pouring in, and tomorrow would take care of itself. Roads stayed unpaved or nonexistent. The much-discussed modernization of the military was barely begun, let alone completed. Even infrastructure related to oil and gas was so badly neglected that Russia is now finding itself grappling with falling production numbers... But the inaction has come at a cost: Shoddy roads are robbing Russia of about 3% of its GDP a year, according to government estimates. Transport costs account for about 20% of the cargo's worth; in other European countries, the cost is between 5% and 7%... A staggering 30,000 towns and villages are without a year-round road link to the nearest administrative center... (Photo by Sergei L. Loiko/The Los Angeles Times - Russia’s abysmal road infrastructure offers a reminder of all the things left undone during the nation's economic boom. Outside the major cities, the roads are narrow and potholed; in some places, they are simply unpaved)Labels: infrastructures
posted by Unknown @ 12:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home