MOSCOW, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- "We are glad of this opportunity to use the advanced experience of Chinese cities, and we are trying to take the best things to use them in Moscow," Maxim Liksutov, deputy mayor of Moscow, told Xinhua.
Liksutov, who is also head of the Department of Transport and Development of Road and Transport Infrastructure of Moscow, said this in a recent interview about the ongoing metro construction by a Chinese company in the city.
As a mega-city comparable to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, Moscow has a big population and a large number of private cars, therefore faces the same task of developing its transport infrastructure, Liksutov said.
According to official data, the Russian capital has a population of around 12.5 million with nearly 2 million of them commuting in daily rush hours, and 5.6 million vehicles of various kinds registered there..
Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin "has formulated a task that by 2023 the Moscow metro should have 1,000 km," which means tripling the present length of about 300 km, Liksutov said.
Since August 2017, China Railway Construction Corporation Lt. has been building a 4.6-km subway line in Moscow, which is expected to complete in 2020.
"Chinese companies certainly have vast experience, knowledge and technology in order to quickly and successfully build a subway," Liksutov said.
"We are very pleased that companies from China have come to our market and are working here to build such an important transport infrastructure for Muscovites," the deputy mayor said.
Before welcoming Chinese companies into Moscow, local authorities and experts had tried to "deeply analyze the experience of Chinese companies and cities," including construction technologies, ticket systems and related public services, according to Liksutov.
"Many of the technical solutions that we have used, we have borrowed from the experience of the city of Shanghai," he said.
Besides metro development, the deputy mayor also lauded Chinese experience in car sharing system, electric buses, and others.
"There are global companies that are represented in Moscow, for example, Yutong, Huawei, with whom we work, who have very good solutions for the development of transport infrastructure in our cities," he said.
"We are well aware that China has very strong knowledge and production capabilities, which make it successful," he said. "It is wonderful that we are able to cooperate, using the most advanced technologies."
