SIMFEROPOL, May 18. /TASS/. The construction of the Tavrida highway in Crimea, which will connect the cities of Kerch and Sevastopol, has been completed by more than 60%, Russian Transport Minister Yevgeny Dietrich said on Saturday. He is now on a working visit at the peninsula.

"Today, in general, the highway is ready by more than 60%," he said.

According to the schedule, seven sections of the highway (about 250 km) will be commissioned by December 2020. The eighth section of Tavrida may be launched a year later than the rest because of the difficult landscape, Deputy Economic Development Minister Sergey Nazarov told journalists.

According to the documentation of the national projects published on the website of the Russian government in February, the construction and reconstruction of the highway will be fully completed in 2022.

Earlier, head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said that the construction of the Tavrida highway is going on schedule. Currently, two driving lanes have been open between Kerch to Simferopol.

Tavrida highway

The Tavrida highway is a four-lane motor road, which will become the core for the development of the new transport system of Crimea. Construction of the road began in 2017. The project’s costs exceed 150 bln rubles ($2.3 bln). The construction is funded from the federal target program for the development of the Crimea and Sevastopol.

The road will be built bypassing the settlements, equipped with elevated pedestrian crossings, overpasses and two-level interchanges, which will significantly reduce travel time. According to the calculations of the Ministry of Transport of the Crimea, it will take about two hours to travel along the Tavrida highway from Kerch to Simferopol, and less than three hours from Kerch to Sevastopol. Now the average travel time from Kerch to Simferopol is 3.5 hours.