YURI PONOMAREV: “CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOSCOW CENTRAL DIAMETERS HAS A POSITIVE AND COMPREHENSIVE IMPACT ON THE MOSCOW ECONOMY”

Talking to “RIA News”, Yuri Ponomarev, senior researcher of the Gaidar Institute, underlined positive impact of new diameters on the development of urban environment and putting in place of new hot spots and opportunities for developing business.

Moscow central diameters (MCD) keep developing and improving. Thus, according to the government plans, three stations at the first two MCD routes have to be reconstructed until the end of the year and two stations opened for future lines.

Yuri Ponomarev is confident that MCD construction and development will have a complex impact on the Moscow economy, not only by increasing the diversity and variability of the choice of routes, but also by improving the spatial territorial connectivity. “In addition to direct positive effects of investment demand at the stage of project implementation (thus, a significant increase in investment in infrastructure is distributed through inter-sectoral linkages, stimulating other sectors of the urban economy), there are positive effects appearing at the stage of MCD operation, meaning the reduction in total transport costs, including through lowering the load on already existing types of transport infrastructure, i.e. metro and highways. This makes it possible to bring the labor markets of Moscow and adjacent cities closer together, to increase the aggregate factor productivity of the urban economy,” the expert says.