OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2013. The railway line between Khasan in Russia and Rajin in North Korea was officially opened at the port of Rajin in North Korea following the line's reconstruction.

The ceremony was attended by Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, Jeong Gil Su, North Korea's Minister of Railways, Alexei Tsydenov, Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, Alexander Timonin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to North Korea, and other officials.

"In 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il agreed to develop cooperation on the reconstruction of the Khasan - Rajin railway line and the creation of a port terminal. The two leaders saw the project as part of the reconstruction of the entire Trans-Korean Railway Line. This will be the shortest transport route from Asia to Europe and back," said Vladimir Yakunin at the opening ceremony.

According to Yakunin, the Khasan - Rajin project has opened up new prospects for multilateral international cooperation which are important not only for the economic and trade zones of both North Korea's Rason and Russia's Far East region, but also for the two countries as a whole.

"This railway section will become a transport route for friendship, promoting the joint economic and transport development of our two countries and the well-being of our people, and will be a reliable international transport hub linking Asia and Europe," said North Korea's Minister of Railways Jeong Gil Su.

Practical implementation of the project began in 2008, when Russian Railways and North Korea's Ministry of Railways signed a cooperation agreement.

In October 2008, Tumangan station saw the ceremonial laying of the first link of the rails and sleepers that marked the beginning of the reconstruction of the Khasan - Rajin railway section.

In 2009, a joint venture, RasonKonTrans, was set up by Russian Railways Trading House, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, and the port of Rajin, in order to implement the project. RasonKonTrans has in turn concluded a 49-year leasing arrangement of the railway line between Tumen - Rajin with the Donghae company of North Korea's Ministry of Railways.

The work was financed from RasonKonTrans' share capital, as well as by funds the joint venture was able to borrow based on the project's business plan.

As part of the project, 54 km of combined narrow and broad gauge tracks with widths of 1435 mm and 1520 mm were reconstructed and 18 bridges, 12 pipe-culverts and 3 tunnels with a total length of 4.5 km were restored. In addition, modern signalling, centralisation and locking equipment was installed.

The final construction phase to create a universal transloading terminal at the port of Rajin has now begun, including a range of measures ranging from dredging, building a new quay wall and equipping storage yards, through the construction of industrial and office buildings and facilities to laying railway lines within the terminal itself.

"The port is designed to handle transshipment volumes of 4 m tons of cargo, but that is not the limit. We are confident that the cargo base will expand and that containers will be shipped through the port. The construction of the port terminal is almost complete, and we are already seeing interest from international customers and partners," said Vladimir Yakunin.

In cooperation with the North Koreans, the timetable and the joint regulations which will govern the movement of trains on this section are currently being finalised.

To ensure the interoperability of the new line with both North Korea's railway network and the Russian rail network, it is planned to create a single control centre with the participation of experts from the RasonKonTrans joint venture and the Donghae transport company of North Korea's Ministry of Railways.

According to Vladimir Yakunin, more than 5.5 bn roubles have been invested in the reconstruction of the Khasan - Rajin railway line and 3.5 bn roubles in the port terminal.