Ivan Sikora was interviewed live by the radio station "Golos Stolytsi" on the prospects of large-scale construction of infrastructure facilities for Kyiv, Troyeshchyna metro line. On the day before, the first deputy mayor Igor Nikonov estimated the total project cost with almost 1.3 billion dollars. The city will get the money for 25-30 years under the government guarantees.
Can the cost of construction grow 3 times?
Ivan Sikora questioned the correctness of the assessments of metro line construction. USD 1.3 billion, at the rate of 23 UAH to USD, would mean almost UAH 30 billion. Klitschko’ predecessors in the mayor’s office provided much more modest calculations, ranging from UAH 16 to18 billion, at the rate of UAH 8 per dollar, equaling approximately USD 2 billion.
Ivan Sikora questioned the estimated cost of construction due to the fact that the labor cost and the cost of materials could not increase 3 times, as US dollar increased compared to hryvnia.
It should be noted, that as of January 1, 2014 this construction project was funded with UAH 3,735,147,83 thousands. Total construction cost (as of 2012) was estimated at UAH 7,628,151,19 thousands (at that time almost 954 million US dollars at the rate of 8 USD per dollar). Thus, the project was already de facto financed with 50% of the estimated cost.
