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REUTERS - Russia's victory in securing the right to host the 2018 soccer World Cup will mean billions of dollars of investment in stadiums, roads, hotels and other infrastructure.Following are details of what needs to be done:
OVERALL COSTS
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the bill for preparations would be about $10 billion and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said the main costs would start to be felt after 2013.
VTB investment bank said the costs were more likely to be about $20 billion, while Russia's Vedomosti business daily put the price tag at $50 billion, a figure the Kremlin's chief economic advisor, Arkady Dvorkovich, said was exaggerated.
Major companies such as gas giant Gazprom will be expected to foot some of the bill, according to Putin.
Compared with nominal gross domestic product of $1.2 trillion, which is forecast to double over the next decade in dollar terms, the investment figures are modest, as is the projected effect on growth, although some sectors could get a boost.
STADIUMS
Russia will have to build 13 stadiums while another three -- Luzhniki, Dynamo and Yekaterinburg -- need to be renovated.
The cost of stadium construction is projected at $3.82 billion in Russia's bid. Moscow's Luzhniki stadium will host the final.
HOST CITIES
Russia has proposed 13 host cities: Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, St Petersburg, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd, Yaroslavl and Yekaterinburg.
Events in other cities will allow fans to watch the games.
TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
Russia is the world's biggest country and the most costly investments are likely to be in transport infrastructure.
- Airports require significant upgrades to boost capacity
- Russia will double the capacity of its three main Moscow airports by 2015.
- More direct flights to major international airports
- High-speed railway links between many of the cities
- Measures to ease traffic in Moscow and St Petersburg
- Thousands of kilometres of motorways and railways need to be improved or built
HOTELS
Russia needs to build more hotels to cope with the expected inflow of fans.
FIFA said Russia had pledged about $11 billion to develop its tourism infrastructure, with funding coming from private and public sources. Russia needs to build or renovate 19,000 hotel rooms, FIFA said.
COMMUNICATIONS
Internet and telephone communications would have to be improved.
- Broadband capacity needs to be improved
- More data networks are needed
- TV and broadcasting infrastructure needs improving
CONFEDERATIONS CUP
Running costs for staging the 2017 Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup in Russia will cost $641.3 million, the bid has estimated.
Sources: FIFA, Russian government, Vedomosti
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
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