President: About 500 km of roads to be built by year-end

"The most important thing is that people drive along a normal road. In total, 500 km of roads of national importance will be built from late 2019 and by the end of 2020. Zaporizhzhia shows some of the best results in Ukraine," Zelensky said during a working trip to Zaporizhzhia region, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The first facility inspected by the President was the M-18 Kharkiv-Simferopol-Alushta-Yalta highway, which is an international motor road of national importance. This road has a great impact on the development of production and agriculture of Zaporizhzhia region, ensures transit traffic for trucks and vehicles from the neighboring regions and goes through Zaporizhzhia city, Vasylivka town, Melitopol town that do not have bypass roads.

This year, as part of the Great Construction project, major overhaul and running medium repairs are being carried out on the M-18 highway, with a total of 122.9 km being repaired.

According to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Head of Ukraine's State Agency of Automobile Roads (Ukravtodor), the workers have already repaired Zaporizhzhia – Mariupol and Vasylivka - Berdiansk roads and embarked on the repair of Zaporizhzhia – Melitopol road.

"It is a large transport hub," Kubrakov said.

All works are financed from the state budget. The total cost of the works is over UAH 3.3 billion. About UAH 960,000 have been allocated so far.

Today, President Zelensky makes a working trip to Zaporizhzhia region. He will take part in the presentation of the region's development strategy and inspect the progress of the Great Construction project implementation.

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