First stone of the project of “Smart City Kazan” laid in Laishevsky area in Tatarstan

Today, an official foundation stone ceremony of project “Smart City Kazan” took place in Laishevsky area of Tatarstan near village Stolbische, within the framework of the 5th International Economic Summit of Russia and OIC countries KazanSummit 2013. The ceremony was attended by President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Ilyas Umakhanov, Deputy Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic of Tatarstan A.S.Akhmetshin, Head of Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Lenar Yakupov, Head of Laishevsky municipal area Mikhail Afanasyev, Head of AJM Planning Design Group (APUDG), Chief Architect of the “Smart City Kazan” Norliza Hashim , Director General of Tatarstan Gulf Investment Company Khaled Al Jassim, as well as representatives of foreign and Russian investors, government bodies, architects and construction companies.

“I am happy to be here today.  A part of the KazanSummit we are launching our new city – “Smart City Kazan”, said the President of Tatarstan. Before making such an important decision, we performed a very serious job: a master plan for the new city was developed and negotiations with investors were held”, added the President.  

Chief Architect of the “Smart City Kazan” Norliza Hashim thanked the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan for the opportunity to participate in this project.

Khaled Al Jassim said that this is one of the many projects that his company implements worldwide, and expressed the hope that this is not the last project in which it participates.

After that, President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Chief Architect of the “Smart City Kazan” Norliza Hashim, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Ilyas Umakhanov and Director General of Tatarstan Gulf Investment Company Khaled Al Jassim laid 4 capsules with messages for future residents of the city.

As part of the official foundation stone ceremony and the Year of Ecology in Russia, Regional Director of the Green Building Council in Russia Dmitry Kolosov handed over to Director General of the Development Corporation of Tatarstan Bulat Gayanov a certificate that the “Smart City Kazan” is a member of the non-commercial partnership for the creation and implementation of norms and regulations for environmental construction.

 “Smart City Kazan” is a project to create a new urban space for the development of business, educational and research activities in order to promote and develop promising sectors of the economy of Tatarstan. The project is supervised by the Investment Development Agency of Tatarstan, and the operator of the project is a specially established state structure - JSC “Development Corporation of the Republic of Tatarstan”. The master plan of the project was designed by Malaysian consortium of AJM Planning & Urban Design Group, Straits Consulting Engineers, Amanah Capital Group Limited in collaboration with the State Unitary Enterprise “Tatinvestgrazhdanproyekt”

 “Smart City Kazan” will be located in the area of ​​about 650 hectares, 3 km away from International Airport “Kazan” and 15 km away from the center of Kazan. A railway line of intermodal transport “Aeroexpress” which will connect the new city with the airport and the center of the capital of Tatarstan, passes through the territory of the facility. The territory of the “smart city” will be divided into 4 zones, which will house an international cultural and business center (220 hectares), centre for education and science (209 ha), a special economic zone (102 ha) and a park (100 ha).

According to Director General of the Development Corporation of the Republic of Tatarstan Bulat Gayanov, the construction period is 20 years; the total investment is 10 billion US dollars. The most expensive will be the Expo Center with the investment of 5 billion rubles to be made. At the same time, investors from Qatar offer to build an inter-regional shopping center. “This is a strong point of growth and a point of attraction. It will be constructed according to the international standards”, said Bulat Gayanov. The cost of this facility is about 10 billion rubles.

The first investor, who plans to start the construction this year, is company TGT Oil & Gas services, which operates in 9 countries. The company is engaged in the service area of oil production, oil exploration and processing of data on well condition. Totally to date, there are 4-5 investors, as reported by Director General of the Development Corporation of the Republic of Tatarstan.