Russian Railways has said it ‘needs’ to invest 2 trillion RUB in main rail infrastructure by 2020.
Vice President of Russian Railways Salman Babeyev said:
“The further development of the industry is necessary and to develop rail infrastructure alone we have to invest over 2 trillion RUB by 2020.”
“This is a huge sum, but the failure to make such a capital investment will lead to a real inability to transport several hundred million tons of cargo every year.”
Babayev singled out three main areas for such investment:
- Routes serving the ports of North-West and South Russia and Russia’s Far East.
- A supporting transport network to enable the development of new mineral deposits and to ensure the realisation of Russia’s export-import and transit potential using the Trans-Siberian Railway.
- Improving transport provision of Russia’s central region and the Moscow transport hub.
“In 2011, Russian Railways plans to invest 349 billion RUB in modernisation and the replacement and development of fixed assets. This is 10% more than in 2010, but the budget allocation for the development of rail infrastructure is not enough to meet the planned needs of the economy and the population’s requirements for rail transportation,” said Babayev.
“The necessary financing could be raised by bringing rail freight tariffs into line with the economic cost, establishing a ‘network contract’ and issuing government infrastructure bonds.”
