National News

Lukashenko instructs to fix roads in Belarus, especially in Minsk

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned the poor quality of roads in Minsk and made instructions to promptly address the issue as he spoke at the meeting on 24 January to review the social and political situation and the crime rate in the country, BelTA has learned. 

According to the president, he has recently received complaints about the quality of roads. “People complain about the roads, especially in Minsk,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko. 

The state of roads is naturally affected by difficult climatic conditions, but there are other factors, which can and should be addressed. “People should understand that we have a terrible winter – we might get frosts of minus 20-25 degrees, then a rain, and then frosts again,” said the head of state. “The asphalt begins to crumble. Of course, road builders might have made a mistake somewhere. However it does not justify what we have in Minsk.” 

“Yesterday I instructed the security service and the police to go through all the roads. The conclusion was not a favorable one. They needed a day to make a conclusion: the state of the roads is bearable, but there is a lot of work to do,” the head of state said. 

In this regard, Aleksandr Lukashenko instructed Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic Natalya Kochanova and Internal Affairs Minister Ivan Kubrakov to deal with the problem and fix roads. “I was surprised: you have fifty vehicles in the city [Minsk], even more, which are supposed to perform patching repairs during this period. Fifty! With good organization, you can fix up the roads in a day,” the president stressed. “Please, deal with it together with [Minsk Mayor Vladimir] Kukharev and the Minsk City Hall.” 

“Natalya Ivanovna [Kochanova], you make sure that next time the security service and the traffic officers that I involve will drive by and say: ‘Yes, a lot has been done.' We have to work in that direction,” the president added. 

Summing up everything he said, the head of state stressed: “Issues related to roads and everything that has to do with roads, especially in Minsk and big cities, should be dealt promptly. But not just go and patch a road. No. There should be a plan and a task for the day. You have to work at night when there is no traffic in general, or during the day if the traffic is not heavy. Everything should be put in order.” 

Aleksandr Lukashenko also tasked the local authorities to organize the work on cleaning the streets from snow with the involvement of residents of the areas. “It is not up to the authorities to clean it. People should do it. But we have to organize this work. People live in apartments. They will not keep shovels, scrapers in their apartments. We, the authorities, should organize everything,” the president said.

Written by belta.by