VLADIVOSTOK, September 5. /TASS/. The Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) should become not only fully double-track, but also fully electrified, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum.
"Along the entire length of the BAM, we need to lay continuous second tracks, and we need to think about the future now. I believe that we need to make the BAM not only fully double-track, but also electrified," he said.
The modernization of BAM is an even larger-scale project than its construction in the USSR, Putin noted.
"Today we are implementing a project that is larger in scale than the largest infrastructure investment project of the Soviet Union, implemented by all the republics of the USSR. And with a huge strain of forces," he said.
The president added that 3,100 kilometers of railway track will be laid in the next eight years. "For comparison, the same amount was laid during the first and second stages of the expansion of the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway combined. And the same amount during the years of the construction of the BAM," Putin noted.
The Eastern Economic Forum is underway on the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok on September 3-6, 2024. The main theme of the EEF this year is ‘Far East 2030. Combining strengths to create new potential’. The Roscongress Foundation is the Forum’s organizer. TASS is the general information partner of the EEF.