There will be no bridge to Sakhalin

The Ministry of Railways admitted to a lack of money

On the seventh day after the resignation of Transport Minister Nikolai Aksenenko, the new head of the Ministry of Railways, Gennady Fadeev, began to revise the legacy of his predecessor. After a meeting of the government commission on structural reform in railway transport, Mr. Fadeev announced that the volume of the investment program of the Ministry of Railways for 2002 would be reduced from the previously expected 160 billion rubles to 93 billion. Thus, the new chief of the Ministry of Railways actually took the position of the Ministry of Economic Development and trade, which at the end of 2001 convinced Mr. Aksenenko to moderate his financial appetite.

The reduction in investment plans of the Ministry of Railways will occur due to the exclusion from the list of objects of “such large construction projects as, for example, the Elga coal deposit and approaches to it, the bridge to Sakhalin.” Gennady Fadeev claims that the Ministry of Railways does not have the funds to build a bridge to Sakhalin. According to the minister, there is no money even for a feasibility study of the project - 300 million rubles. “If the state is interested in this project, then it must find sources of funding that the railway department does not have,” the minister noted.

The bridge to Sakhalin was one of Nikolai Aksenenko’s favorite projects and at the same time almost the main target for criticism of the investment plans of the Ministry of Railways from the department of German Gref. The investment program of the Ministry of Railways was discussed on December 8 at a government meeting. Mr. Aksenenko’s department was then instructed to develop a comprehensive justification for the construction of a bridge to Sakhalin across the Nevelskoy Strait, including justification for investments in construction, and submit it for consideration to the government’s expert council. Now there is no need for this. The agreed version of the Ministry of Railways investment program should be considered at a government meeting on January 24.

Leonid PETROV