Julian Evans in Moscow

British companies are set to make hundreds of millions of pounds in revenue from the Kremlin's ambitious plans for a £250 billion roadbuilding programme.

Russian roads are in a parlous state. The Soviet Union invested much more money into the nation's railways and the country still lacks motorways between big cities - between Moscow and St Petersburg, for example - or to nearby European capitals, such as Minsk. In rural areas, many villages have little more than dirt tracks.

The bad roads cost the economy an estimated 10 per cent of GDP, according to VTB Europe, the investment bank. It also costs lives: 34,000 people a year die on the roads in Russia, ten times more than in the UK.

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Posted by dcjaya at March 10, 2008 6:02 PM