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Yakutia's Arctic district to lay new winter road in 2025

In the first year, the company will lay 15 km

YAKUTSK, April 8. /TASS/. Yakutia's Roads of Arctic Company, which manages more than half winter roads in the region, plans to start laying a new long-term winter road in the Verkhoyansky District from 2025. The road will be about 15 km long, the company's first deputy director general and chief engineer, Nikolay Popov, told TASS.

Seasonal roads in Yakutia are important transport routes to communicate with remote settlements. Every year, the region's road services open more than 11,000 km of winter roads. When navigation is closed, food, fuel, construction materials and other life-supporting goods are delivered by those roads.

"At the moment, our priority is to make a long-term winter road from Topolinoe in the Tomponsky District to Batagai in the Verkhoyansky District. Preparatory work is underway, and the construction will begin from 2025 from the village of Batagai towards the village of Bala in the Verkhoyansky District," he said.

In the first year, the company will lay 15 km. The winter road's total length is planned at 316 km. The work is schedule for the period between 2025 and 2029, if the financing is timely, he added.

Winter roads in the region operate from December to mid-April. When the winter road begins working, transport links will be available from November already, connecting Yakutsk and Batagai. "We plan to increase the road's service life by laying it along land sections in mountainous terrain," he noted.

The state-owned Roads of Arctic Company was established in 2014. "At that time, the company managed 3,774 km of roads. Over 9 years, the length of serviced roads has more than doubled, mainly due to serving municipal winter roads. In recent three years, the company has received for management more than 1,500 km of seasonal roads," the company's representative said.

The company reports to the regional transport authority. The Roads of Arctic Company serves more than 8,100 km of roads, where more than 7,700 km are winter roads, more than 477 km are year-round paved roads. The company employs 310 people, uses 270 units of equipment. The company is financed from the regional road fund.

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