Today, "the road of death" disappeared from the map of Chechnya. That's the nickname of an old highway connecting the region to Dagestan. The highway had a high death toll due to traffic accidents. Now a modern four-lane highway took its place. It's a part of the Kavkaz Federal Highway.
Here's Artur Mustaev with the report.
Honoring tradition, they let the special equipment go down the new road first. The road workers renovated one of the most difficult sections of the Kavkaz Highway a year ahead of schedule.
Yevgeny Ditrikh, Minister of Transport: "This is a modern highway that meets all the safety requirements. I'm confident that, from now on, traffic accidents on this section will decrease significantly".
Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic: "Before this section was rebuilt and construction of the bypass route in Gudermes District began, people had been dying virtually every day. Now, the roads are a calling card of the Chechen Republic".
The length of the new section is almost 14 kilometers. In recent years, the traffic here became more intense — up to 30,000 cars per day. That's why the number of lanes was increased up to four and opposing traffic was separated. It has three interchanges on different levels and five pedestrian crossings. The renovation covers the part of the federal highway stretching from Krasnodar to the Azerbaijani border.
It's one of the key routes for transit traffic going from Turkey and Iran to the southern parts of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. This section is also a part of the European route which runs through France, Germany, Czechia, and Slovakia, connecting European countries with the south of Russia. The roads of Chechnya will be patrolled by new cars. Today, police cruisers were issued to the regional traffic police in a solemn ceremony.
Mikhail Chernikov, head of the General Administration for Traffic Safety: "98 cruisers are bestowed in the framework of the national project and in the framework of the road safety project. Today, I send you my warmest wishes as you go on duty in these wonderful cars".
In addition to the road, a new bridge was built over the Aksai River, which connects Chechnya and Dagestan.
Artur Mustaev, Zelimkhan Buntyshev. Vesti. Chechen Republic.
