Kuznetsovsky tunnel to be open in mid-December 2012, Victor Olersky (photo)
The Kuznetsovsky Pass is expected to be inaugurated in mid-December 2012, the Transportation Deputy Minister Viktor Olersky told the conference "Outlook of seamless logistics of Russian coal exports ", organized by PortNews.
The official said the tunnel had been working in test mode. But over a few years this will be insufficient to meet the growing cargo traffic in the area, said Olersky. The Ministry believes there will be a need to build two or three similar tunnels.
As for remote access railroads, Olersky said, there will be no progress without significant state investments through different financial schemes.
The construction of new Kuznetsovsky tunnel is part of the investment project "Reconstruction of Ouneh - Vysokogornaya railway line Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan." The new 3890-m-long tunnel will eliminate the "bottleneck" on the railway line, increase the speed and freight volume of trains. Upon the tunnel commissioning the capacity will be increased to 23 million tons of cargo a year, and after the railroad overhaul completion in 2016 - to 35.7 million tons.