Azarov: all materials for road construction should be produced by Ukrainian enterprises

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said that all of the materials needed for the construction of roads should be produced by domestic enterprises.

"We need to create the basis for the construction of modern roads on our own, focusing on the quality of road construction," he told journalists in Kyiv on Friday, after visiting the National Transport University. Azarov noted that Ukrainian road workers imported over 300,000 tonnes of bitumen from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan last year, "and this is minus two billion hryvnias in our foreign trade balance." "Thus, our task is clear - to organize the production at Ukrainian enterprises of all materials needed for road construction," he said. Azarov said that Ukrainian roads must be equipped with automated systems for monitoring the level of traffic congestion and that relevant work was already underway. "Our roads are flooded by a large flow of heavy vehicles, for which our roads are not designed. This has led to the destruction of roads. We need to provide separate routes for such vehicles, and the movement of heavy vehicles should be limited on other roads," Azarov said.