Contractors of the BRICS project from Dzerzhinsk announced multimillion-dollar debts

Companies operating in Dzerzhinsk (Nizhny Novgorod region) under the project “Development of water supply and sanitation systems in the cities of the Russian Federation” told Kommersant that they could no longer work on credit. The project started in January 2019, when Russia signed an international loan agreement with the BRICS New Development Bank.

The agreement provides for an investment of $320 million in the modernization of water supply and sanitation systems in five cities: Dzerzhinsk, Ivanovo, Cheboksary, Volzhsky and Rybinsk. However, with the introduction of Western sanctions, the BRICS Bank stopped transferring foreign currency tranches to pay for the work. Already in December last year, the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation assessed the situation as critical.

To date, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has not been able to agree with the bank on the resumption of financing. His long absence may force the construction to stop. JSC SZ Vneshstroy is laying a reserve line of the Teplovsky water intake in Dzerzhinsk, the company’s general director Nikolai Afanasiev said that BRICS funding ceased in June last year. Vneshstroy invested 667 million rubles in the project. their funds.

“This is a very serious problem for us. In addition to the water pipeline in Dzerzhinsk, we are involved in a number of social projects: we are building a kindergarten, a school, housing for orphans. The load is very large, and I no longer want to risk them, ”said Nikolai Afanasiev. According to him, further lack of funding may force the company to mothball the networks.

Another contractor, Igor Dobrykh, CEO of PR and SS, said that the company had invested more than 360 million rubles. in the reconstruction of the main sewer collector Dzerzhinsk. “We need another 280 million for the purchase of pumping equipment. We don’t have them, while since last year there has been complete uncertainty with financing from the customer,” the contractor said. He is ready in July to start taking people out of the facility.

According to a source close to the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, the total debt to contractors in five cities exceeded 4 billion rubles, and the companies working at the facilities have exhausted their own resources. This threatens with a forced stoppage of work and increases the risk of accidents on unfinished networks.

Roman Kryazhev, Nizhny Novgorod