#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Ministry of Transport of the Krasnoyarsk region plans to build a railway on the sections Russkoye (oil and gas field) – Igarka, Igarka – Norilsk as part of the Strategy for the development of railway transport until 2030.
This will provide access to the Norilsk industrial region and link it with the territory of the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district, provide the territories of Western Siberia with access to the Northern Sea Route.
Earlier, residents of the polar city in a written appeal to Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed concern that the new Siberian Meridian project does not include the construction of railway lines to Igarka and Norilsk:
“We earnestly ask you to include the road from Urengoy to Igarka and further to Norilsk! This will be a real artery of life for the economy of all of Russia. The connection of the richest oil and gas fields of Tyumen, the Vankor field, the Norilsk combine by rail will pay off many times over! This will significantly reduce the cost of manufactured and exported products, retail prices for food for residents of northern cities… Help to revive Igarka!” says the letter.
The possibility of building a railway, which will presumably connect Yamal and Norilsk, has been considered for several years. Representatives of the Russian Geographical Society conducted expeditions twice: in 2019, the researchers determined and mapped the routes and the coordinates of the most significant objects on an electronic map, and in 2020 they selected new soil samples for laboratory study.
We add that earlier, the Russian government began to develop the Siberian Meridian megaproject, which was announced in 2019 by Vladimir Putin. The project involves the creation by 2035 of a freight rail link between China and the Arctic seaports on the Northern Sea Route, bypassing the Trans-Siberian railway, and covers large sections of Siberia and the Arctic.
Text: Elena Popova, Ekaterina Elkanova, Photo: open sources
