MOSCOW, February 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russian railroad monopoly Russian Railways faces a penalty of 10.4 billion rubles ($300 million) for Olympic construction delays linked to a subsidiary, the Vedomosti business daily reported Tuesday.
RZD-Stroi, a fully owned subsidiary of Russian Railways, was to build apartment buildings with 3,500 apartments in total to house Olympic volunteers in Sochi and nearby Khosta, an official told Vedomosti on condition of anonymity.
The company, however, managed to complete only 1,300 apartments in time, and the state Olympic contractor, Olimpstroi, had to intervene to have the remaining 2,200 ready by the deadline, the report said.
According to a draft decree, the government plans to make Russian Railways compensate for Olimpstroi’s construction expenses of 10.4 billion rubles and, in return, give ownership of the 2,200 apartments to the railroad monopoly.
The amendments, published on the government’s legal information website, are yet to be approved.
The plans were discussed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak and other officials on Monday evening.
An official told Vedomosti on condition of anonymity ahead of the meeting that “final decisions are unlikely at the moment.”
“The top priority now is to have everything ready for the Olympics in time. We’ll search for those who are guilty later,” the official said.
A spokesman for the Sochi 2014 organizing committee denied any housing problems and said all Sochi Olympics workers and volunteers have been accommodated.
