MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Vorkuta's diversification from coal is part of the master plan to develop the agglomeration, Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunkov said.

"We have a plan to diversify Vorkuta from coal," he said at a meeting of the Federation Council's committee on development of the Far East, Arctic and Antarctic. "That is, from the resource for which the city was formed almost 100 years ago."

Vorkuta will have new sectors of the economy, he continued. "The plans are to build a gas chemical enterprise and, accordingly, to create a new branch of the economy in Vorkuta."

In December, 2023, the Russian government listed 16 settlements in the Arctic to have development master plans to 2035, due to be implemented from 2025.

The list of 16 Arctic backbone settlements and agglomerations in nine regions includes: Kem, Belozersk (Karelia), Vorkuta (Komi), Tiksi, Naiba (Yakutia), Norilsk, Dudinka, Dixon and Igarka (the Krasnoyarsk Region), Arkhangelsk (the Arkhangelsk Region), Murmansk, Kirov, Apatity and Monchegorsk (the Murmansk Region), Naryan-Mar (the Nenets Autonomous Region), Pevek and Anadyr (the Chukotka Autonomous Region), Novy Urengoy, Noyabrsk and Salekhard-Labytnangi (the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region). Investments in the development plans' implementation are planned at more than 3 trillion rubles ($29 billion).