The First Deputy Prime-Minister Ravil Muratov on the 27th June  2012 presented the decision of the Tatarstan government to move the Kazan food and consumer goods markets to the newly constructed facility of Technopolis Novaya Tura by April 2013. The latter which is an investment project of Moscow businessmen Josef Levin and Alexander Haldei, is currently being constructed in the outskirts of Kazan on the vast territory of 260 hectares and will provide 14500 trading places, parking, warehouses and residential space for workers.

The Novaya Tura project will reportedly serve for solving the problem of slattern and poorly organized outdoor markets which currently inhabit the city in the view of the oncoming Universiade 2013, and under the terms of the federal law prescribing all markets to be placed in capital facilities.

At the present moment there are 20 functioning markets in Kazan, 15 of them are outdoors, stated Vedomosti on the 28th June  2012. However, their share in the city sales turnover is steadily declining, having fallen to 8.7 percent in 2011 from 14.4 percent in 2006.

The entrepreneurs in their turn criticized the fact that Novaya Tura was too far from the city (19 km distance from Kazan) and it has significantly higher rental prices. “The rent is unbearable” lamented some of the businessmen during the project’s presentation.

However, the local government’s position stated by Ravil Muratov appeared quite firm. “The moving schedule is obligatory. We are to meet the investors’ expectations”, stated the first Deputy Prime Minister

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