Naberezhnye Chelny

Naberezhnye Chelny (nəbĭryĕzh`ēə chĭlnē`), city (1989 pop. 501,000), in NE European Russia. Once a small town named Chelny, it became Naberezhnye Chelny in 1930. From 1982 to 1988 the city was named Brezhnev, after Leonid Brezhnev. It is the site of the Kamaz factory, one of the largest heavy-duty truck plants in the world and one of Russia's largest industrial companies and the first large enterprise in Russia to privatize (1990). Power is supplied by the lower Kama River hydroelectrical plant.

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Naberezhnye Chelny 

a city in the Tatar ASSR under republic (ASSR) jurisdiction. Landing on the left bank of the Kama River. Located 17 km from the Krugloe Pole railroad station, the terminus of a branch of the Ufa-Ul’ianovsk line. Population, 126,000 (1973; 9,000 in 1939).

Naberezhnye Chelny was formerly a center of the wood-products, food-processing, and textile industries. The largest enterprises were a grain elevator and furniture and spinning and weaving factories. A period of rapid growth of the city began in 1970 with the construction of the Kama Truck Plant. A major construction industry is being created, with enterprises producing large prefabricated housing panels, reinforced-concrete structural elements, metal structural members, and concrete and keramzit products. Large-scale housing construction is under way. A general technical department of the Kazan Construction Engineering Institute and an automotive technicum are located there. The Nizhnekamsk Hydroelectric Power Plant is under construction (1974) near Naberezhnye Chelny.