USD 6.3 Million from Federal Budget Allocated to Infrastructure Development Ust-Luga Port

USD 6.3 million (from the 2002 federal budget has been allocated to the development of the infrastructure of the Ust-Luga port (Leningrad Region). At a meeting today with journalists after discussions at the Kremlin, President Putin told Governor of the Leningrad Region Valerii Serdyukov about this. He said that the administration of the Leningrad region had been hoping to receive USD 19 million this year from the federal budget for the port's infrastructural development.

The construction is now planned of a railway-ferry connection enabling trains to board and disembark from ferries along the Baltic ferry route (Ust-Luga - Kaliningrad - German ports). Both Russian and German investors are ready to invest funds into this project. The only problem remains the transitional point at Kaliningrad, Serdyukov remarked; it's not economically viable for ferries to enter it, so for this part of the project federal financing is needed.