"The Round Table: Public Role in Developing of the Key Social and Economic Projects "The Bridge to Sakhalin" was held in the Sakhalin Area Administration in the framework of the Civil Forum.
RIA PrimaMedia was informed in the Department of Information Policy of the Sakhalin Area Administration.
The representatives of public organizations, officials and scientists took part in the event. Sergey KARPENKO, the Acting Chairman of the Area Committee on Economy, made a keynote address at the meeting.
According to him, the bridge "Sakhalin-Continent" is the main factor of long-term development of island economy. For this reason its construction is included in "The strategy of social and economic development of the Sakhalin area till 2020."
The economic substantiation of the project contains the information on integrated approach to the development of transport infrastructure of the Area and its economy as a whole, including project profitability.
"We should discuss the construction of the bridge "Sakhalin-Continent" in two ways: economic and strategic. One-sided view will not bring success," Sergey KARPENKO noted.
The feasibility study includes the construction of the new railroad line Ilinsk - Uglegorsk, a brickyard with capacity of 15 million pieces of bricks a year, a basalt factory, a cement mill, a refinery with capacity of 4.2 million tons a year, a coal-to-methanol plant, an aluminum production unit, and Solntsevsky strip mine. All these objects are to ensure the profitability of the railway. Besides, the transit cargo may increase the sea ports freight turnover from 4.2 to 54 million tons in 2025. By this time the railway freight turnover comes to 9.2 million tons, the production of coal reaches 11 million tons.
By estimate, the running costs will decrease 3 times, but the profit will increase 1.5 times if the railway is built and a new transport scheme is used instead of the sea ferry. Moreover, the Far East and Siberia are developed mainly along the Trans-Siberian Railway. And currently the Khabarovsk Territory Authorities support building of the railway Selikhino - Tzimmermanovka - De-Castrie - Vidanovo - Nysh and also suggest that the branch line to Nikolaevsk-on-Amur will be built.