Trans-siberian Railroad Is The Key To Natural Resources Of The Pacific Coast Of Russia

Dynamically developing eastern wing of the Trans-Siberian railroad is becoming the key to natural resources of the Pacific coast of Russia. That statement was made in Vladivostok at the All-Russian scientific and practical conference "Increase of efficiency of railroad transport operations in Siberia and the Far East" dedicated to 100th anniversary of the Trans-Siberian railroad (Transsib). Presently they are actively carrying out construction of a new 320 km long line from the Ulak station (central sector of the Baikal-Amur line) to the south of Yakutia (a republic in the composition of the Russian Federation) and towards the Elga deposit of coking coals. Elga forecasted reserves are estimated at 24 billion tonnes of coal. Annually they plan to extract and deliver by train 30 million tonnes of coal from the Elga deposit. Implementation of the Elga project will not only make the Baikal-Amur railroad profitable but will provide an impetus to development of the Vanino sea trade port (a port in the Khabarovsk territory in the eastern part of Russia). They plan to construct a modern terminal in Vanino to export coal by sea to Asian countries. In the nearest future they plan to initiate implementation of another two large projects: construction of the railroad bridge across the Tatar Strait to connect the Sakhalin island with the mainland, and to build a 500 km long road from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to the Cape Lazarev.