KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The project to develop high-speed transportation by rail on the Kyiv-Odesa route is economically viable and would require investment of around EUR 540-840 million, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.
“I am sure by 200% that there will be passenger flow,” he said during the infrastructure day in the European Business Association (EBA) on Tuesday.
He said that it would take two hours to reach Odesa from Kyiv. The price of a ticket of UAH 500-700 will be competitive.
Omelyan said that the optimal is the route along the Kyiv-Odesa highway where the state has land parcels.
The minister said that construction of one kilometer of tracks would cost some EUR 1-2 million. This allows assessing the construction of the entire railway at EUR 500-800 million. Omelyan said that one train would cost some EUR 10 million and four trains would be required for organizing normal trips.
He said that it is expedient to organize transportation of freight using this route. Freight dispatchers and potential international operators of ports, with which Ukraine is holding negotiations, are interested in it.
The minister said that later this new railway track could be connected with Lviv and Europe, creating a new high-speed railway route.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Sales of electric cars in Ukraine (new and used ones) grew 3.2-fold in January-October 2017 year-over-year, to 2,225 cars, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
The association said that the share of used electric cars reached 86% of the primary registration market, while a year ago it was 42%.
Residents of Kyiv city bought the largest number of electric cars (528), Kharkiv region is second with 406 cars and Odesa region is third with 405 cars.
According to the report, the most popular electric car is Nissan Leaf (1,855 cars sold), although most of these cars imported to Ukraine were used.
A total of 79 BMW i3 electric cars were sold, 56 Tesla Model S, 54 Ford Focus and 30 Fiat cars were sold.
According to AUTO-Consulting, the total fleet of electric cars used in Ukraine exceeds 4,000, and only in January-August 2017 it doubled.
“If the pace continues, by the end of 2018 the electric car fleet could again double, exceeding 8,000 cars,” the analysts said.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Pivdenne Design Bureau (Yuzhnoye, Dnipro) is preparing for boosting cooperation with the National Academy of Science of Ukraine in the sphere of creation of aerospace equipment in 2018-2022, the press service of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) has reported.
According to the report, at a meeting of the coordination council of the Bureau and the National Academy of Science the sides summarized the implementation of a cooperation plan for 2013-2017 and approved a promising plan for 2018-2022.
“The new plan provides for expanding the scope of joint research in the field of rocket and space technology and increasing the amount of funding,” the press service said.
“This shows that at the current stage of space activities, the SSAU and State Enterprise Pivdenne Design Bureau look to the future through the prism of science,” the press service said.
First Vice-President of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies Volodymyr Horbulin, acting Director General of the Pivdenne Design Bureau Oleksandr Dehtiariov and SSAU Head Pavlo Dehtiarenko took part in the meeting.
According to the SSAU, in accordance with the general agreement on cooperation between the Bureau and SSAU signed in 2012, the parties are currently developing cooperation in 10 key areas, including ballistics, aerodynamics and heat exchange; new materials and technologies; the main problems of rocket engines burning solid fuel; liquid propulsion systems; satellite systems and telemetry systems; control systems for rocket and space technology.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The EU-China container train will start running across Ukraine this year, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said during the infrastructure day in the European Business Association (EBA) on Tuesday.
“We received freights from the EU. I hope that the frequency will be at least one train a week next year,” he said.
He added that synchronously the work on the creation of the new route of the Silk Road: Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan and the EU-China route via Ukraine is underway.
Commenting on the current state of affairs with the launch of the Ukraine-Georgia ferry route, Omelyan said that the memorandum signed by Ukrzaliznytsia, Georgian Railway and CJSC Azerbaijan Railways signed in September 2017 is not enough.
“A private investor is required, preferably Chinese one. This is the guarantee that the freight will reach its destination,” the minister said.
He said that the ferries on the balance sheet of Ukrzaliznytsia are still undergoing repair and are “breaking the berth” at the Chornomorsk port.
“Their commercial exploitation is under large question. We need a private operator with new effective ships,” Omelyan said.
As reported, the first pilot container train on the new Silk Road Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China (across the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea) was launched by the Infrastructure Ministry jointly with Ukrzaliznytsia on January 15, 2016. The dry run of the new container train ended in the early hours of January 31, 2016, on the 16th day of the journey. It had problems with returning home and was not launched anymore.
Ukrzaliznytsia, Georgian Railway and Azerbaijan Railways on September 8, 2017 signed a memorandum of cooperation on the joint operation of a permanent rail-ferry service for the development of freight traffic along the EU-Ukraine-Black Sea-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Caspian Sea-Asian region states route using ferries of Ukrzaliznytsia.
KYIV. Nov 29 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has introduced smart technologies in the Ukrainian capital as part of the International Mayors Summit, which is taking place in Kyiv on November 28-29, the press service of the Kyiv mayor has reported.
“Kyiv has become the first city in Ukraine to start successfully and comprehensively introducing smart technologies and building the city’s digital infrastructure,” he said during the opening ceremony of the summit on Tuesday.
Klitschko greeted the guests of the capital and shared with them the plans for Kyiv’s development.
“I am pleased to welcome all the mayors participating in the summit in Kyiv, colleagues from Ukraine and abroad. It is very good that we can exchange experience at such an event. I am pleased to adopt the best experience of colleagues from different cities and countries. I want as many new successful ideas and projects as possible to be realized in Kyiv. Earlier, abroad, I had already photographed beautiful buildings, and now we have urns, bollards, and pedestrian crossings. That is, these are the best examples that our city can and does realize,” he said.
The mayor stressed that the task of all mayors was to make the cities they lead comfortable, modern and safe. He also said what innovations had already been introduced in Kyiv.
In particular, Klitschko noted that two years ago Kyiv started developing smart infrastructure of the city. The first project as part of the Kyiv Smart City program was the “Open Budget,” which made it possible to track online incomes and expenditures of the city budget.
“As part of Kyiv Smart City, various city services were also introduced in the capital so as to make the city more comfortable, safe and modern. These are a system for informing residents of Kyiv, booking an appointment with a doctor online, the 1551 service, determining the arrival time of public transport, control over the movement of municipal transport, and many other things,” Klitschko said.
Separately, he spoke about the “Safe City” project, which was initiated and is being implemented for the safety of Kyiv residents, traffic control and traffic in the city. He noted that almost 5,000 CCTV cameras had been installed in institutions and public places.
During the opening ceremony, the summit participants signed a manifesto of mayors-innovators. Among the commitments are to develop and implement innovations that make the life of city residents more comfortable, adopt the best world experience, cooperate with young leaders and the start-up community, increase the social impact of urban projects and involve citizens in assessing the results of their implementation.
The International Mayors Summit (IMS) was founded in 2016 as a platform for the exchange of experience between local government leaders and world-class local development specialists.
KYIV. Nov 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Wizz Air, the largest low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, will start operating in Kharkiv, which will become the third Ukrainian airport of the airline.
Wizz Air will also launch five new routes from Lviv and Kharkiv.
The press service of the airline reported that as a result of the increased demand of Wizz services by the Ukrainian passengers, the airline is delighted to offer a greater choice of flights for the Ukrainian travelers and their visitors. The new services available from Kharkiv to Dortmund and Katowice, will operate each twice per week and will start in April and June, respectively. Lviv low-fare network will be further expanded, in addition to the recently announced London-Luton connection, with three new routes to the beautiful cities of Dortmund, Katowice and Gdansk from next spring. Passengers looking for their next adventure abroad can already book their tickets on the newest on wizzair.com from just UAH 279.
The company recalled that from the beginning of this year, 6 new routes were launched from Kyiv to Warsaw, Poznan and Lublin in Poland, Nuremberg and Frankfurt Hann in Germany and Copenhagen in Denmark while adding a second Airbus A320 to its Kyiv fleet. Furthermore, Lviv operations were restarted this spring with 2 new services to Berlin and Wroclaw.
“Wizz’s fast-growing Ukraine operations will continue to stimulate the local economy as it has done for the last years, bringing increased employment in Ukraine’s aviation and tourism sectors and supporting more than 600 jobs this year in associated industries throughout the country. Expanding its operations in 2018 to three aircraft, Wizz Air will have a local staff of more than 100 direct employees in Kyiv and will offer in total 29 low-fare routes to 10 countries from three Ukrainian airports,” the airline said.
The two new routes from Kyiv to Tallinn and Lisbon will be launched in 2018.
During the 10-month period of 2017 (January-October), nearly 590,000 passengers have enjoyed Wizz’s low fares, easy booking system and excellent on-board service to and from Ukraine, showcasing a growth of 75% in comparison to the same period last year.
The airline said that the flights on the new routes will start from Kharkiv to Dortmund on April 5, 2018 (the price starts from UAH 869), to Katowice on June 20, 2018 (from UAH 579), from Lviv to Gdansk and Katowice on March 26 (from UAH 279) and to Dortmund on May 21 (from UAH 719).
Wizz Air services more than 550 routes from 28 bases, connecting 144 destinations in 43 countries. Its fleet consists of 87 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft.
