Ukrposhta to raise cash for construction of sorting centers via sale of real estate

Kyiv, May 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – State-owned postal service enterprise Ukrposhta plans to invest funds raised from sale of real estate objects in the construction of sorting centers, its director general Taisia Zamkova said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

As reported, the company plans to build four sorting centers, one each in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv.

"The primary investment would be made through depreciation payments of Ukrposhta, and later – through the sale of objects that would be, as a rule, in the centers of large cities," First Deputy of the State Communications Administration of the Ukrainian Transport and Communications Ministry Oleksandr Baranov said.

Zamkova said that by the middle of 2010, the construction of the first sorting center, in Dnipropetrovsk, would be at the design stage, and the construction would start in H2, 2010. She said that UAH 3 billion in depreciation payments would be allocated to build the Dnipropetrovsk center, prepare infrastructure, and purchase equipment and a vehicle fleet.

"We want to select the constructor of sorting centers without tenders, as [Germany's] Siemens has been working on the issue for a long time," she said.

Zamkova also expressed hope that in 2009 the issue of the allocation of a land plot for the construction of a sorting center near Kyiv would be settled. She said that Ukrposhta's need for land plots for the sorting center and a vehicle base is 16 hectares.