Russia’s metals company Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) will undertake an ambitious project to finance 50% of a housing renovation project in its home city of Norilsk in the Krasnoyarsk Region, TASS reported.
The program’s total cost is estimated at 85 billion rubles ($1.37 billion), the company’s Vice President Dmitry Pristanskov told the state-run news agency.
Norilsk’s housing stock is the legacy of the Soviet times, and every year another one or two buildings are marked as outdated. Most houses, built back during the USSR, have a lifespan of 25-30 years, but in reality people have been living there for 40-50 years.
“The estimations quote as much as 85 billion rubles in necessary investments,” the company’s vice president said. “We have discussed this project with the Ministry for the Development of the Far East and Arctic and the government. The company takes on half of the expenses, 10% will be paid by the region and the city, and about 40% of investments will come from the federal budget.”
According to the company official, the renovation in Norilsk may take about 15 years, starting in 2021.
The Krasnoyarsk Region’s Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Tsykalov said that under the program, more than 300,000 square meters of housing will be demolished, and about 500,000 square meters will be built.
Norilsk is among the world’s five northernmost cities with the population of over 100,000 (170,000), the other cities being Russia’s Murmansk, Norway’s Hammerfest, Anchorage in Alaska and the capital of Finland’s Lapand, Rovaniemi.
