OREANDA-NEWS  The cost of building a bridge between Sakhalin and the mainland has increased by hundreds of billions of rubles relative to the estimate made in the spring of 2024. The head of the region, Valery Limarenko, said this in an interview with RBC.

According to the governor of the Sakhalin Region, to begin the implementation of the bridge construction project, "it is important to go at least into the first phase of design — the justification of investments." Limarenko noted that at the moment, the cost of construction, according to preliminary estimates, is at the level of 800-900 billion rubles. "I said that when the pre-design studies were done, it was about 600-700 billion rubles, now the estimates are 800-900 [billion], because time is passing and something is changing. The real assessment will be when there is a project," he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the Russian region admitted that the cost of the project will continue to increase "if time moves forward." "You know how the cost is determined: it is designed, the cost is determined and it is said that the cost is such and such, taking into account such and such years. That's it. So, you can read the concession agreement for the construction of the bridge — this option is not excluded. The credit rate and time will be included there. And the cost will, accordingly, have already been increased by these parameters. That is, there is no figure that is hard as a stone and does not change," he explained.