The government will issue ₽86.5 billion to 10 regions for the development of electric transport

 Mishustin ordered to allocate ₽86.5 billion to ten regions for the development of electric transport

The government will allocate 86.5 billion rubles. ten regions in 2023–2025 for the development of electric transport and the improvement of territories adjacent to tram tracks. The corresponding order was signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the press service of the government reports.

Part of the funds will be used to provide lighting for those areas where electric transport is in demand, the press service said. The money will be sent to the Kursk, Volgograd, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Saratov, and Yaroslavl regions, as well as to the Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, and Perm regions. There is a need to upgrade a "significant part" of the transport infrastructure, the government explained.

Also, the funds will be directed to the reconstruction of 620 km of tram lines and the arrangement of the territories adjacent to them. They are used to purchase 646 trams, 284 electric buses, and 124 charging stations.

The government has been working on a comprehensive reform of urban electric transport since the summer of 2021. In December of the same year, Mishustin signed a decree that gave the regions the right to receive budget loans for this.

In October, Yevgeny Moskvichev, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Transport and Development of Transport Infrastructure, called for the launch of a federal target program for the development of urban surface electric transport as early as 2023. He estimated its cost at least 500 billion rubles. He urged to allocate funds for the purchase of new trams and trolleybuses for the regions from the federal budget until at least 2030 and make subsidies irrevocable.

The head of the Ministry of Transport, Vitaly Savelyev, supported this initiative but warned that the program could be financed based on the possibilities of the federal budget. The budget for 2023–2025 was approved with a deficit. In 2023, it should amount to 2.93 trillion rubles or 2% of GDP.

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In February, RBC announced a new program to replace trams and trolleybuses, citing a draft roadmap for its development. It said that the government would approve this program in September.