Eurasia Review: China plans to build a railway to Yakutia

China plans to commit itself to the construction of a railway to Yakutia, reports Eurasia Review based on the analysis of open sources.

The plans of the PRC, in particular, are evidenced by the signing between JSC “Railways of Yakutia” and the China Association for the Development of Industry Abroad (CODA) of a memorandum of cooperation in the implementation of the project to create a new transport corridor based on the railway line Mohe (PRC) – Dzhalinda – Skovorodino – Yakutsk (Nizhny Bestyakh) – Magadan (port) with a railway border crossing over the river. Amur (Heilongjiang) within its competence.

The document was signed on March 8 following the visit of the Yakut delegation to China, the publication reported. “Kolyma.ru” with reference to the press service of IntelConsulting LLC, whose representative was a member of the delegation. Eurasia Review noted that neither the construction schedule nor the exact route of the railway was announced as a result of the negotiations, the parties pledged to establish the details in the near future.

At the same time, the publication draws attention to the June statement by the Minister for the Development of the Far East, Alexei Chekunkov. In conversation with RBC the minister said that the project for the construction of the Yakutsk-Magadan branch should not be “straightforward budget” and can only be built using the concession mechanism. To allocate money from the budget for the construction of a branch is “a bit unrealistic,” Mr. Chekunkov noted then.

Since the project will be implemented through a concession agreement with China, in exchange for construction, China will gain access to Russia’s natural resources in the region, Eurasia Review notes. Before this project, China was limited to the construction of infrastructure facilities on the border with Russia and along existing branches, in particular, the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Erdni Kagaltynov