ASTRAKHAN, September 29. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian government will decide within a month on a contractor company to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait, Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said.

“The Russian government is considering the issue. A decision will be taken within a month,” Sokolov told reporters.

The chief of the Russian federal road agency Rosavtodor, Roman Starovoit, said on Monday that talks are held with seven leading companies, including foreign ones, competing to be a contractor.

“For the present, Stroitransgaz more than others pays attention to the participation in the project,” Starovoit said.

There is no government decision yet, he said, adding that a document may be ready within a month.

Feasibility study of the project is not completed yet, but preparation of the territory is underway, as sappers examine the area, and engineering study goes on, the agency chief said.

The maximum cost of the project till 2019, including design and study work, totals 228.3 billion rubles (around $6 billion).

The length of the crossing will total 19 km. It will consist of sections - a six-km bridge across the channel, 6.5 km of sections across the Tuzla land area, the dike and 6.5 km across the strait. The project also includes construction of railway and highway infrastructure on the side of the Krasnodar Territory and on the Crimean peninsula.

The bridge is planned to be built before 2018

Rosavtodor is in charge of the project implementation.