Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medevedev and Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov have laid a time capsule at the site of the future “science and technology” city for 155,000 residents.
Medvedev attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the biggest project of its kind in Russia on Saturday during his visit to the republic of Tatarstan in the Volga region.
The so-called Innopolis, which incorporates an IT-village for 20,000 information technology professionals, has been set up on an area of 1,200 hectares 40 kilometers from Tatarstan’s capital, Kazan.
“Some 155,000 people will live and work here in several years,” Medvedev said at the ceremony. “It will be a very powerful and interesting innovation center, which will generate advanced ideas.”
The life in the future city will be based on the “live-study-work-rest” concept.
A 200,000-sq.meter futuristic technology park will be built during the first stage of the project in 2012-2014. It will have a shape similar to a football stadium with a garden and a restaurant at the center.
An IT university for 5,000 students will be built adjacent to the technopark.
“We believe that the construction of this Innopolis will give a strong boost to the rapid development of Russian companies working in the field of information technologies,” the message in the time capsule says.
Medvedev made innovation of the economy a key priority of the Russian leadership during his past presidency.
