The State Housing Fund chief has complained of a lack of utilities at construction sites offered by the city.

(Kazan, February20, Tatar-inform, Mikhail Mironov). Kazan does not have enough preformed construction sites to build the planned amount of housing within a social mortgage programme. The Tatarstan State Housing Fund director Talgat Abdullin told it to a meeting at the Cabinet of Ministers.

The earlier planned houses in the Yudino settlement, of a total space of 38 thousand square metres, cannot be constructed due to unavailability of required utilities, said Abdullin. “Heat supply is going to cost us 170 million roubles, we do not have that money,” the official enhanced.

In general, he went on to say, Kazan is short of sites needed to fulfil the 2010 task, building 400 thousand square metres in housing within a social mortgage programme.

The Housing Fund is willing to buy out houses under construction, to compensate for the lack of construction sites. In his words, the fund is ready to buy 2 residential buildings under construction at the Yamasheva street in Kazan from the Tatarstan Housing Mortgage Lending Agency, since they are suitable for social mortgage, as they have many one-room flats. The state housing fund and the builder have so far not reached an agreement on the price.

The Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin said in turn the city had given the fund a list of free-of-charge land plots, of a total space of 280 thousand square metres. No free of charge infrastructure is now available in Kazan, the city’s head enhanced. “Yes, there are issues in regards to infrastructure; free networks cannot be found anywhere. But this is just a matter of price,” Metshin is convinced. “You cannot say we did not offer sites.”

Tatarstan Prime Minister Rustam Minnikhanov reminded the cost of building utilities had to be minimal. “We need to select sites where infrastructure costs are going to be minimal. But it is not Abdullin who needs the housing – it is the city who must be most interested in the construction,” the head of Tatar government enhanced.

Rustam Minnikhanov expressed discontent over the pace of implementing the social mortgage lending programme in Tatarstan’s capital. “We have not been able to sign a contract between the city and the State Housing Fund. Today, the SHF and Kazan need to finally distribute their responsibility, who is in charge of what,” said Prime Minister. “Money is available, what is stopping us from beginning the work? We need to solve the task all together, and the task is well within reach, if we do not trip each other.”
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