Tuvan Railway Received State Support
   RBC
22 March 2007

permanent link: https://en.tuvaonline.ru/2007/03/22/railway.html

The Russian government has thought of a way to make the Republic of Tyva free of subsidies from the federal budget. All it takes to make it happen is to build 460 km of the Kyzyl-Kuragino railway. Today the commission on investment projects of national importance agreed to allocate R30bn [about 1.1bn dollars at the current rate of exchange] from the investment fund for the construction.

According to the Trade and Economic Development Ministry's calculations, the railway link will produce a real revolution in the republic. Tyva's capital, Kyzyl, will be linked to Russia's mainline railway network. The problem of northern supplies that costs the budget R200m every year will be resolved in one go. However, the main advantage is that the railway link will provide access to seven deposits of natural resources: of zinc, iron ore, lead and nickel. In addition, a licence for the development of one of the coke deposits in the area may be sold to investors for R40bn. This will immediately recover the cost of the railway construction project.
Over a period of five years, a total of 10,000 new jobs will be created in Tyva, which will speed up the republic's social and economic development.
German Gref, Russian trade and economic development minister in this regard sayz:"It is estimated that starting in 2015 - I think in practice it will be earlier than that - the budget of the Republic of Tyva will increase four-fold. At the moment, the Republic of Tyva is a 75-per-cent subsidized entity of the Russian Federation. After this project is implemented, it will stop being subsidized. Moreover, the region's GDP will more than double".
The Tuvan railway project is lobbied by Yenisey Industrial Company (YeIC), an arm of United Industrial Corporation, (linked to Sergei Pugachev, Russian oligarch, Tuvan senator) which has been holding a license for developing Elegest coal field for already four years without any move to start works there. Tuvan deputies launched an official inquiry to Tuvan senator Sergei Pugachev, one of the Russia's richest men, who is supposed to be linked to a coal deal, about his intentions in regard to Elegest coal. No answer followed.

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