Russia may undertake the large-scale resettlement...

Vedomosti reported that the project is likely to start in the Volga town of Togliatti with the workforce of the Russian ailing auto giant AvtoVAZ, which has recently announced massive job cuts in an effort to slash costs. AvtoVAZ is the major job provider in the area.

The scheme will initially see the resettlement of 450-500 families from Togliatti to the Leningrad Region town of Tikhvin, where a new railway car-producing factory is to open by the end of the year, the paper said.

If the resettlement of AvtoVAZ workforce proves to be a success, it will be applied to other single-factory towns in Russia, the paper said.

However, experts are skeptical about the plan. They argue that few in Togliatti would venture to sell their comfortable apartments and move to the Leningrad Region, which has also seen a steep rise in unemployment rates, the paper said.

The program of resettlement from Soviet-era single-industry towns, hit hard by the global economic crisis

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