 Further plans include expanding the first line east to the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (one station), and west (3 stations).Two more lines running from north to southeast and from northeast to southwest are planned longer-term; the time frame for their construction is undefined.In March 1998, before the 1998 Russian financial crisis, Pyotr Sumin, governor of the Chelyabinsk province, called the Chelyabinsk Metro one of the most important construction projects in the region.