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New railway line to push implementation of Arctic investment projects — experts

Belkomur is a complex project on industrial and infrastructural development of Russia’s North and the Urals

ARKHANGELSK, March 28. /TASS/. The new railway line, which will unite the White Sea, Komi and the Urals (Belkomur), will initiate implementation of more than 40 major industrial investment projects in various sectors in the Russian North, the government’s commission on the Arctic development said in materials obtained by TASS.

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Putin to discuss steps to improve living standards in Arctic at international forum

"Belkomur’s construction will form a new railway route, which will connect industrial areas of Siberia and the Urals with ports of Russia’s North and North-West, thus taking a part of transportation services from the existing railway systems of the Russian Railways Company (RZD) in the direction of the Russian North, and it will also push implementation of more than 40 big industrial investment projects in mining, chemistry, fuel, energy, oil, gas, petrochemical, ore, forestry and wood processing sectors," the document reads.

The regions in Belkomur’s area will have conditiions for effective industrial and social-economic development. The regional domestic product will grow by 5.1%; the project will provide about 45,000 new jobs and will attract about 785 billion rubles (about $13 billion) in private investments.

Besides, implementation of the Belkomur project will favor development of the infrastructures, and first of all, construction of grid lines and development of the energy sector. The North’s energy systems will develop, they will be centralized, and respectively the electricity costs in the Russian Arctic zone will be going down.

Belkomur is a complex project on industrial and infrastructural development of Russia’s North and the Urals, and its key part is construction of a new railway line of 1,161km from Solikamsk (Perm) to Syktyvkar (Komi) and further on to Arkhangelsk: construction of new passages of 712km and reconstruction of existing, but not used much, passages of 449km.

Implementation of the Arctic development projects will be discussed at the upcoming IV international forum Arctic: Territory of Dialogue, due in Arkhangelsk on March 29-30. Since 2010, the forum is a main platform for discussing development of the Arctic region. Organizers expect about 1,500 attendees from Russia and from abroad this year. TASS is the forum’s general information partner.

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