MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. Yakutia’s authorities plan 100,000 tonnes of scrap metal will be removed from the Arctic coastal areas within five years, Governor Aisen Nikolayev said at the Public Chamber meeting on Monday.

"We have a project on how to clean the coastal area of Yakutia’s Arctic zone from the gained scrap metal," the official said. "It will be implemented as a public-private partnership. <…> The work has begun, and we hope this year we will start removing the scrap metal. We plan that within 5 years we will remove almost 100,000 tonnes of scrap metal from the Arctic coastal districts."

Under the project, Yakutia will organize metal processing and logistics facilities in the Arctic and will organize registration of remaining scrap sites in the North, the governor added.

In Yakutia’s 13 districts, the governor continued, remain a few million tonnes of scrap metal, including barrels, pipes, metal structures, transformers, ship debris and frames of mining equipment.

The big Arctic cleanup is a priority of the national strategy for development of the Arctic zone, approved by the Russian president.