The Government of the Russian Federation (GoRF) has made it a priority to increase investments in the transport sector to rejuvenate and grow the economy. In 2014, the GoRF approved the Transport Strategy up to 2030, which sets a target of commissioning 11,672 km of Category ¹ highways by 2024 and 32,246 km by 2030. At the end of 2019, the total length of Category 1 highways was 2,490 km, way below the target by 2024, which makes constructing new highways a priority for the Ministry of Transport of Russia. In line with the Transport Strategy, the GoRF is attracting private sector investments into financing and operating toll roads. The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) has been actively involved in financing toll roads in Russia and continues to add new toll road projects to its loan portfolio.

The Project aims to support expansion of toll-roads network in the Russian Federation aimed at improving transport connectivity in line with the GoRF’s Transport Strategy 2030.

The proposed NDB loan through the modality of a two-step loan will be used by EDB for financing the construction of new or upgrade of existing toll roads in Russian Federation. The Project will contribute to the development of inter-regional connectivity in Russia and of the international Europe-Western China corridor.