How Putin opened a new section of the M-12 highway from Moscow to Arzamas

On September 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched traffic on the fourth section of the M-12 federal highway, extending the route of the new highway from Moscow to Arzamas in the Nizhny Novgorod region. By the end of 2024, this toll route should connect the capital with Kazan and Yekaterinburg, almost halving the travel time between these cities, and in the future, reach Vladivostok.

The active part of M-12 now connects Moscow, Moscow, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Its total length is 415.58 km. The cost of travel along the highway from the capital to Arzamas for cars will be about 2,800 rubles, for trucks – about 6,000 rubles, said Konstantin Makiev, deputy chairman of the board of Avtodor Group of Companies.

“The M-12 highway is a significant step in modernizing and expanding the federal road network,” Putin said during the opening ceremony of the new section of the highway. To launch it, the President, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and the heads of other regions joined the video conference from different places through which the M-12 route runs.

According to Putin, the strengthening of the national economy and industry, the quality of life of citizens, as well as the growth of business and tourism activity largely depend on effective route hubs. The route included “unique” objects, in his opinion: for example, the first cable-stayed bridge running across the Oka River, which was developed and certified in Russia. In addition, the new section of the route launches a 94 km long bypass road around Arzamas; it will relieve the city of transit transport, increase the speed and convenience of traffic in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and will also contribute to the growth of tourist flow in the region, the president added.

Completion of construction of the fourth section of the M-12 highway, according to the terms of the state contract, was envisaged by June 2024, according to the website of the general contractor for the construction of this section of the Avtobahn holding. The President expressed “special gratitude” to the specialists for opening this part of the route ahead of schedule. Putin concluded his speech with an instruction: to provide new sections of roads with stable mobile communications and the Internet (which currently do not exist) as soon as possible, as well as to build gas stations, food outlets and recreation areas.

The active part of the M-12, as noted by Khusnullin, who joined the opening ceremony from Arzamas, makes up “more than half of the entire route to Kazan.” “Never, in the entire history of the country, from your [президентского] instructions <…> “until implementation”, so little time has passed – less than three years, he turned to Putin. According to Khusnullin, the reason for the rapid appearance of the road is due to the fact that the president has recently been paying “special attention” to the construction industry, due to which specialists are fully provided with funding. He also recalled the president’s earlier comment regarding the lack of refueling services and multifunctional zones (MFZ) on M-11 and noted that four such MFZs had already been built. Khusnullin also talked about bringing the M-12 highway to Kazan by December 20, 2023, and to Yekaterinburg by 2024. To do this, he said, it is necessary to connect the section from Bashkiria to the Perm Territory. After which experts plan to bring the route closer to Tyumen: part of the roads, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, will be built by 2025. “Then we go parallel to Omsk, <...> further Novosibirsk with a bypass of Novosibirsk, and so the road, with expansions in places to two and four lanes, with access to the borders of Mongolia and China, will extend to Vladivostok,” Khusnullin said.

Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev, who joined the ceremony from the Moscow region, noted that the M-12 highway is connected with the development of international transport corridors “Europe – Western China”, “North-South” and others. By 2030, according to his estimates, 670 million goods will be transported along them.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that about 40,000 – 50,000 cars and about 20,000 passengers of city public transport will pass along the section of the M-12 highway in the capital every day. All this will help relieve the congestion of the Moscow Ring Road and the network adjacent to it, Sobyanin is sure. He, along with the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov, joined the ceremony from the Zeninsky Highway.

M-12 crosses the Moscow region for 77 km and covers six important densely populated areas, including Balashikha, Lyubertsy, Pavlovsky Posad and Elektrostal. “This is a new round of economic development and quality of life: people spend less time getting from one point to another,” Vorobiev said. In addition, in his opinion, the road will make it possible to create dedicated lanes for public transport on old federal highways.

“The construction of the M-12 highway is already greatly affecting the economy of the region,” noted the governor of the Vladimir region, Alexander Avdeev, who connected from Murom. The prospect of developing road infrastructure attracts investors from the logistics sector, as well as those interested in the construction of industrial parks, he said. In his opinion, there are effects for housing construction: at the end of last year, a record 1.2 million square meters were commissioned in the region. m.

Each ruble invested in the construction of highways brings up to 2.5 rubles. GDP growth is one of the highest indicators in the economy, said Alexey Andreev, General Director of DSK Avtoban. The total increase in domestic regional product in the regions where the highway passes by 2050 could amount, according to him, to more than 500 billion rubles. – including in the Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod regions, through which the fourth stage of M‑12 passes. The economy is developing, including due to new logistics routes, roadside infrastructure and people employed in it, Andreev explained.