MOSCOW, May 25. /TASS/. State support for the Belkomur railway project will amount to 95.8 billion rubles ($1.7 billion) in 2023-2024, First Deputy Governor of the Arkhangelsk Region - Chairman of the Arkhangelsk Region Government Alexei Alsufyev said in the upper house of Russia’s parliament.

The Belkomur project is a new railway route, which will connect industrially developed regions in Siberia and the Urals with ports in Russia’s North and North-West. The project will add to effective development of the Arctic projects and will form the international railway route across Russia between Russia’s European North and China, thus cutting by 800km the transportation distance for deliveries from Siberia and the Urals.

"The project’s state support will amount to 95.8 billion rubles in 2023-2034," Alsufyev said.

He noted at the same time that no support from the state budget would be required during the period of the railway construction.

"These are the figures of the financial model of the project, which today envisages channeling a cargo flow of 35 million tonnes into ports, including the ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk," he said.

"During the period of the railway construction, federal budget funds won’t be required as the private investor has confirmed the agreement to undertake financing of up to 100 percent of investment for the construction," he added.

At the regional level, the Belkomur project will boost the industrial and social-economic development in Komi, Perm, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and other adjusting areas. As the route is implemented, another 39 investment projects will develop further the North-Western part of Russia, attracting more than 720 billion rubles (almost $13 billion) in private investments, and offering 28,000 new jobs. The new railway’s annual capacity will be 35 million tonnes.

Coal, mineral fertilizers, oil, timber, ores, construction materials, containers will be taken to the backbone ports of the Northern Sea Routes: to the ports of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Belomorsk, and later on also to Sabetta. The extra-budgetary funding of the railway construction will exceed 260 billion rubles ($4.5 billion). As the exploitation term (26 years) expires, the Belkomur railway will be transferred for further use to the Russian Federation.