Half a billion in the air, or how the Irkutsk airport sits on two chairs
While the topic of building a new Irkutsk airport is hopelessly stalling, they tried to “feed” the enthusiastic public with “sensational” news about a large-scale renovation of the old building.
But where many uninitiated see a breakthrough and great generosity, at the slightest approach, stagnation and devastation, standard for the Irkutsk region, are revealed. And a sharp cut in funding.
So, last week, the media of the Irkutsk region cheerfully announced that in 2023 about 170 million rubles would be allocated for the modernization of the Irkutsk airport. Planned repair work of the premises of the medical unit, the facade of the hotel, the runway and drainage and water supply systems for airfields.
And, of course, at first glance, the news can claim to be good. But in this case, it is rather a story about an old hackneyed truth, where everything new is a well-forgotten old. Although now it is not even old, but so, last year.
After all, only in 2022, the airport was already repairing the asphalt concrete pavement of the airfield (isn’t it the same runways?) And the building of the medical unit (and again – the same as this year). 242 million rubles have already been spent on these frauds in 2022, which is significantly more than in the current year. Some reverse inflation.
Or just this year they decided to “pat up” the holes for which the last time the money was shoved into pockets were not provided?
In total, since 2014, more than two billion rubles have been spent on all kinds of “repair” work at the Irkutsk airport. The question of how much the airport has been modernized is, to put it mildly, rhetorical.
Irkutsk airport. 1968
Meanwhile, the Irkutsk airport remains an eternal thorn in the eyes of the regional authorities, which is the sponsor of the banquet, the owner of the monstrous “enterprise” and all those who were lucky enough to use it.
Long-term promises to modernize terminals and increase throughput remain big words. Why, even the promised renewal of the area in front of the airport and the square at its “gates”, glorified by everyone, remain the product of the vivid imagination of the creators of this legend.
The money is allocated annually. Undoubtedly, the current repair work is underway. But even with closed eyes, it is clear that all of the above is not even close to solving the real problem around the hackneyed “air theme”.
Irkutsk airport is unsafe, inconvenient and simply outdated. And in the foreseeable future, it may well become “ownerless”. After all, thanks to the project for the construction of a new terminal, the contractor who manages to “get involved” in this, to put it mildly, muddy story, will have to repair the old and so far the only airport.
Then from the current owners and bribes are smooth, as they say. And why the extra worry?