The expansion of the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Region cost one trillion rubles

The BAM and Trans-Siberian expansion program increased by another one per trillion rubles – up to three trillion 700 billion rubles. “Kommersant” writes about this with a link to the project passport presented by the Ministry of Transport.

The third stage provides for the expansion of the transport capacity of BAM and Transsib from the current 180 million tons to 270 million tons in 2032.

As “Kommersant” already wrote, in the earlier editions of the passport, the main emphasis in both works and investments fell on BAM, to which it was planned to allocate 90% of the entire project budget.

Now the situation has changed. Additional funds will be used for measures insisted on by shippers. They asked for more attention to be paid to the Transsib and the approaches to the ports in Primorye. As a result, the passport included such expensive constructions as bypasses of Khabarovsk, the Smolyaninovo-Nakhodka section and the development of the Nakhodkinsky junction, as well as the construction of the second track on the Komsomolsk-Volochaevka section. Thus, if in the first version the entire Trans-Siberian project required 260 billion rubles of investment, now this sum has grown to 613 billion.

At the same time, Russian Railways projects at BAMe will be preserved. These are backups of the Severomuisky, Kuznetsov, and Kodar tunnels, as well as the second bridge across the Amur. According to the project passport, these constructions will also cost from 1.3 trillion rubles to 1.6 trillion.

Under the conditions of Western sanctions, after the start of a large-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine, a radical reorientation of Russia to the East is taking place. However, it is hindered by imbalances and a shortage of transport capacities, which have led to an excess of Chinese containers in the European part of the country, and disputes between shippers and the Russian Railways regarding priority and tariffs. Therefore, the expansion of the Eastern landfill cannot be dispensed with.

The main question is whether even increased funding will be enough for these purposes and to what extent they will have to be paid for from the state fund of national welfare, notes The Bell. Profile publications estimate the final share of state financing at 40%, and they do not even doubt that the estimate will be exceeded and the deadlines will not be met.