On September 27, 2017 in "Gudok" Publishing House the results of the design of the Moscow-Kazan HSR in terms of environmental impact were summed up.
"One of the key principles of the project is environmental friendliness, minimal impact on nature and human beings,” noted Alexander Misharin First Vice-President of Russian Railways in his opening speech.
The designers have provided the whole complex of environmental measures complying with the legislative requirements and meeting the interests of various population groups. In the "very sensitive" areas the mainline is installed on overpasses and fit harmoniously into a natural landscape and architecture. This painstaking work is conducted in each region and municipal entity. Here’s what the General Director of JSC Mosgiprotrans Alexander Dyatchin said about this: "We collected necessary information and performed field studies on all possible environmental restrictions. This information was systematized and analyzed, and the obtained data was applied to cartographic materials and compared with design solutions in order to exclude the possibility of damaging the environment. "
By the way, the project has received positive responses from environmental organizations. So Rashid Ismayilov, the Head of the Working Group on environmental issues of the Expert Council of the Government of the Russian Federation, described the results of the designers' work as impressive, drawing attention to the need to correspond to the level declared by the construction organizations, and to structure regulated relations with environmentalists. "It is necessary to spread approaches to designing Moscow-Kazan HSR," he said.
Representatives of other public and environmental organizations, in particular the editor-in-chief of the publication "Ecograd" Igor Panarin complained that it took so much time for environmentalists to find a common language with technical specialists, but eventually they were satisfied with the joint work. Vladimir Tushonkov, General Director of LLC “Environmental Safety of Industry, Energy and Transport” acknowledged that in terms of the implementation of well-designed project solutions, the environmental safety of the project will really correspond to a high level. "It is important to ensure the advance construction of noise protection and cleaning structures," he said.
The General Director of the Center for the Infrastructure Economy Vladimir Kosoy, recalled that environmental safety improved the living conditions of the population: "Among other things, this also comes from the reduction of anthropogenic activity in the areas with a high concentration of business activity."
Furthermore, the project received positive evaluation from the Leading Adviser of the Analytical Center of the Government of the Russian Federation Alexei Safronov and the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Technical Regulation, Standardization and Conformity Assessment of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Andrey Lotsmanov.
In turn, the leaders of the Union of Railway Builders Gennady Talashkin and Alexei Stepanov told about the introduction of advanced technologies which reduced the load on the environment during construction works.
The Adviser to the Head of Rosturism Eugene Kude also highly appreciated the contribution of HSR in the development of touristic activity. "This is one of the main areas of the tourism industry development, mainly due to the unique nature."
Thus experts agreed that the declared approaches to the design and construction of the Moscow-Kazan HSR were necessary for the social and economic development of the territories and complied with environmental standards.
