OREANDA-NEWS. January 28, 2013. Vnesheconombank and leaders of constituent entities of the Russian Federation (the Perm Territory, the Republic of Komi and the Archangel region) argue for promoting the project on the construction of the Belkomur Railway.

The parties assessed the current state of the project and worked out measures for promoting it. In the near future a concept of implementing the project on the principles of public private partnership and its feasibility study are to be presented and parameters of Vnesheconombank’s potential participation are also to be determined. The total value of the project on the construction of the Belkomur Railway is currently about 180 billion rubles.

As part of implementing the Memorandum of Intent on Carrying out the Project on the Construction of a Railway line Archangel – Syktyvkar – Perm (Solikamsk), Vnesheconombank’s management held a meeting with representatives of the China Development Bank, the Railway Ministry of China, the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, and the Russian-Chinese Center of Economic and Investment Cooperation where they discussed issues of their potential joint participation in the Belkomur project.

The parties also discussed acceptable formats of implementing the project for Russia’s and China’s development institutions, including share capital structure of a special engineering borrower-company and opportunities for entering into its capital by major Russian and Chinese companies as well as an issue concerning the state’s and RZHD’s potential participation in the project.

In order to engage private investors for the project the parties deem it wise to work out a list of investment projects aimed developing a recourse base of the regions participating in the project (mining chemistry, oil industry, construction materials industry, agro-chemical complex and timber-industrial complex), including with the participation of the Russian-Chinese Investment Fund. A Russian-Chinese Working Group was set up to address these issues. It comprises representatives of the Komi Republic, Vnesheconombank, the Russian Transport Ministry, the China State Development Bank and a number of Chinese companies.

The project on the construction of a railway line Archangel – Syktyvkar – Perm (Solikamsk) as part of the Komi Republic’s, the Perm Territory’s and the Archangel’s Comprehensive Industrial and Infrastructural Development Program provides for constructing a new railway line with a total length 1155 kilometers out of which 715 km are to be built anew with the remaining functioning lines to be reconstructed or reinforced. Belkomur consists of two sections: the Northern section runs through the territory of the Archangel region and the Komi Republic) and the Sothern section runs from Syktyvkar through the territory of the Komi Republic and the Perm Territory.