Assistant to the President of Russia Igor Levitin spoke about the contribution of the national leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, to the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline and thus to the development of the transport infrastructure of modern Russia. He underscored the purposefulness and perseverance of Heydar Aliyev in promoting the BAM project.
On the sidelines of the exhibition dedicated to the contribution of the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev to the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, assistant to the President of Russia Igor Levitin in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza said that thanks to the perseverance and professionalism of Heydar Aliyev, Russia today has a reliable land route for cargo transportation to the Far East.
"Today's event was prepared by the ministries of transport and railway administrations of Russia and Azerbaijan. On the eve of the centenary of Heydar Aliyev, we wanted to highlight his work in one of the areas – the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline,” Igor Levitin said.
"Heydar Aliyev was one of those who proved to the Politburo and the government that this road was needed. Not everyone was agreed, but he managed to convince them. Now, 50 years later, we see that if it were not for his purposefulness, perseverance, and firmness in defending the construction of the BAM, we would not be able to transport to the Far East as much cargo as we do today,” the assistant to the President of Russia emphasized.
Igor Levitin said that he himself worked at BAM and personally met with Heydar Aliyev. "Since Heydar Aliyev was the curator of the BAM construction, he visited both the western and eastern sections of the construction site. I met him at the eastern section. I was then the military commandant of the railway station that he visited,” he said.
"I saw his meetings with BAM workers, heard him speak. Heydar Aliyev was distinguished from others who came to the construction site by one feature: before asking how many kilometers were built, he asked about the living conditions of people: how they live, how they accommodate, how their children go to schools and kindergartens. These were his main questions, and then he asked about tons, kilometers, and cubes. I remember it well, " Igor Levitin said.
