Russian Railroads Are Being Developed Dynamically

Russian minister of railways Gennady Fadeyev stated at a press conference on Saturday in Novosibirsk, the largest center of the Asian part of Russia, that he was confident that national railroads were being developed dynamically and there were many prospective projects ahead.

Gennady Fadeyev stated that the Western-Siberian railroad was playing the key role in the railroad traffic of the country. First of all it was caused by the growing volume of traffic from the Kemerovo region where the major cargo for railroads was coal as well as metallurgical works' products. He indicated that Kuzbass coal traffic volumes in 2002 reached a record figure: the Western-Siberian railroad was daily providing 6,500 wagons to coal mines of Kuzbass. The Omsk region was also increasing transportation of its produce, first of all of petroleum products.

The minister stated that the moment was approaching to privatize the giant monopoly, the Railways Ministry. The package of documents to privatize the industry was already prepared. As a result of that the new "Russian railroads" structure will emerge and the Railways Ministry will start playing the role of the managing organization. In addition to that different sideline enterprises and production facilities will be privatized and become independent. It will give the industry certain dynamics.

The minister stated that Russia was prepared to take part in the project to connect the Trans-Siberian railroad with railroads of North and South Koreas. Fadeyev stressed that it would be advantageous for Japan as well as its transit of commodities to Europe would become shorter and cheaper, and to China which was also interested in exporting its produce to the global market. Fadeyev indicated that suffice it to state that in case the project was implemented, the delivery of one container from the Far East to the European part of Russia would become cheaper by USD 800.

The minister stated that in addition to the West-East development option they got the North-South project representing the continuation of the railroad from the only non-freezing northern port of Murmansk to Iran.