He made this statement at the round table Sources of Transport Infrastructure Financing and Construction Economics within the framework of the International Innovation Passenger Transport Forum SmartTRANSPORT and the International Transport Infrastructure Forum, which are held these days at ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre.

According to Andrei Levakin, one of the main problems of the last year was the sharp rise in the price of construction materials, due to which contractors incur losses. City officials have prepared an ordinance that will help revise contracts for builders upward.

“We hope to have the agreement ready by the end of the year, and contractors can be compensated, but only for existing contracts. This will not apply to previously accepted works,” said Andrey Levakin, adding that for these purposes from the city budget it is planned to allocate 4.5 billion rubles.

“The main problem right now is pricing. For many companies, a sharp rise in the price of materials is always stressful. In the previous years not all companies were able to cope with this stress and went bankrupt, and we are very much waiting for an opportunity to adjust the contracts,” agreed the General Director of JSC ABZ-Dorstroy Leonid Gindin.

The opposite point of view was expressed by Alexander Zhemyakin, Chairperson of the St. Petersburg Committee on State Procurement. According to him, we must remember that when an entrepreneur signs up to perform a state contract, he/she also signs up for all the entrepreneurial risks. “Not everything is so straightforward about price changes, because, for example, metal prices have jumped, but sand prices may have fallen. On the London Stock Exchange, metal prices have now fallen slightly. In addition, the builders don’t deliberately deliver the work now, hoping for a fat sum and increase in the project budget,” said the official.