Moscow’s chief transport official dismissed on Tuesday reports that helicopter landing pads may appear in the Russian capital to help senior officials avoid the capital’s ever-worsening traffic jams.
“The department is not developing any projects to use air transport. There are no such plans,” Maxim Liskutov, head of the city government’s transport department said, according to the web portal newsru.com.
A source in the Russian Transport Ministry which oversees Moscow’s air traffic strategy, earlier told Vedomosti daily that helicopter services were being discussed in the city hall, but no firm plans had yet been made.
The paper said the project, which includes the creation of ten landing sites in Moscow and 40 more in the Moscow region, would cost around six billion rubles ($200 million).
Senior officials in the capital already have special cars fitted with blue flashing lights known as "migalki," which allow them to use exclusive lanes and ignore traffic rules, to speed up their journeys in Moscow’s acute traffic jams. Their behavior on the roads has come under criticism following a series of fatal accidents caused by disregard for normal traffic rules.
Oleg Panteleyev, head of Moscow-based aviation analytical agency Aviaport, said helicopters would be unlikely to help solve the traffic jam problem, since only a few top state officials would have the right to use them, Vedomosti reported.
There are 887 cars with flashing lights registered in Moscow, far too many to be replaced with helicopters, Panteleyev told Vedomosti.
Flying helicopters in the city could also bring its own problems, he said. “There was a case when top officials went to the Kremlin by helicopter and caused damage to some churches,” he said.
Federal law currently forbids flights within Moscow's outer ring road (MKAD) except by the armed services, police and emergency ministries.
Former Mayor Yury Luzhkov also studied a scheme for helicopter services within the city but later abandoned it due to the legislative issues involved.
