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BAM of the era of Crimea
July 8, 40 years old Bama - the most expensive infrastructure project of the USSR. Russian authorities plan to develop the road further
The construction of the Baikal-Amur highway, the fortieth anniversary of which is celebrated on July 8, still causes disputes: whether this project was needed then, in Soviet times, and whether it is needed now, in the market era. The state, in spite of everything, plans to continue to develop the road. On the day of the celebrations, the country's President Vladimir Putin will start building a new line of the highway. However, economists do not see special market prospects in the BAM.
On July 8, 1974, the Decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the construction of the railway from Ust-Kut (Irkutsk region) to Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Khabarovsk Territory) with a length of 3145 km was issued. It is this date since Soviet times that is considered a kind of "Bam's Day". The total length of the BAM from the Taishet to the Soviet Harbor is more than 4287 km.
Defenders of the idea of building the Northern Baikal detour claim that BAM "sews" the remote regions of the country, and is also an alternative to the Trans -Siberian Railway, which runs too close to the Chinese border.
A separate line in the history of BAM is the work of tens of thousands of prisoners of Bamlag and Amurlag, which built the first branch from Komsomolsk to the Soviet harbor .
BAM is unlikely to become a driver of the economy
Economists have always been skeptical of BAM as an economic project, the cost of which in the prices of 1991 was more than 17 billion rubles. This is the most expensive project of the USSR.
Economist Yegor Gaidar at the beginning of the “obese” two thousandths claimed that BAM is an expensive, large -scale and romantic project, but economically absolutely meaningless.
“The trouble is that no one has thought about an elementary question:“ Why are we building this road? What are we going to carry on it and in which direction? ”He said in the program of" The M endeons ".
According to him, the project cost approximately more than more expensive than expected, and in full was never completed.
"Already today, our prices for railway transportation have costs related to covering losses from the non -earned road," he said.
"Why are we building this road? What are we going to carry on it and in which direction?"
A specialist in the field of socio-economic development of regions, social and political geography Natalya Zubarevich agreed with him in an interview with Radio Radio. In her opinion, the Baikal-Amur highway cannot become the locomotive of the region’s economy, as it was not in Soviet times. And still BAM does not work at full power.
"The construction of the BAM was half economically determined. The second reason is the need for the second road, away from the Chinese border. I have no feeling that BAM will become a driver of the economy and after forty years. He was not in a planned economy and will not be in the market," Natalya Zubarevich believes.
Although, the expert admits, while the project itself can be recruiting. The main barrier-in the north-east of the country there are no investors.
Natalya Zubarevich believes that in the current economic situation in Russia and the world, the development of BAM, especially the laying of new highways to Magadan, Chukotka and Kamchatka, is not realistic.
“You can master budget money when there are many, but now it is not at all. About the transport strategy (Russian Railways) until 2030 I would relax from the point of view of the current day,” she said.
In her opinion, from the point of view of prospects, these roads are economically not needed there, since the ratio of costs and results is negative.
“Stalin built, as you remember, when there was neither the market nor the money account and there was a lot of labor. And now there are slightly different times,” Zubarevich believes.
Help: Baikal-Amur Railway in the hope of future profitability
Adventure in the form of Komsomol construction
The Soviet propaganda machine very accurately caught the mood of young people who, according to the party’s plan, were to become the main construction force of the project. And, despite the fact that in the 70s everyone was already accustomed to replacing each other to propaganda campaigns in the Soviet press, but the call to go to BAM worked.
“We, students of Leti, lived their very interesting life, far from the so -called“ life of the Soviet country ”, and I personally perceived a trip to the BAM in the construction detachment not as the“ Komsomol members ”, but as the next adventure that the young one wants so much,” recalls Radio Liberty, Vladimir Abarbanel , who built the village of Yakimim not far from the point of the beginning of the beginning of the beginning of the beginning of the beginning of the beginning. Ust-Kut of the Irkutsk region.
According to him, this adventure was specific.
"Since" plowed "we did not work at all very well and very well. Here, the bridge builders mounted a bridge over Lena, and we gathered shield houses, built a house of culture and school. The guys worked as a carpenter-concrete workers. The girls of our detachment worked on forest cutsfish, cleaning the weekly wood and dug trenches for foundations. Summer was very hot and very hot and very hot Dusty, ”said Abarbanel.
He does not remember any special Komsomol Transdor at the construction site - "the construction was like a construction, and the fact that we went to work and from work with a song under the guitar was exclusively our own tradition."
“The only moment I felt that I was a witness to an important event - this is a short, without a press, a rally on the opposite, the right bank of Lena, to which we were one of the first to cross the new bridge,” recalls Vladimir Abarbanel.
The builders of the highway near Ust-Kut lived in huge army tents, a special student brigade prepared breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and all free time, students either gave concerts for builders, then arranged musical evenings in their camp.
The youth construction could not do without adventure.
The only moment when I felt that I was a witness to an important event was a short, rally on the opposite, right bank of Lena, to which we were one of the first to cross the new bridge
"There were interesting stories. One morning we woke up on the island: during the night the water in Lena rose 8 meters and reached our camp - we took it with the cheerful carelessness of youth, and since this happened on the weekend, we first drove the girls into the dining room on boats, and then built from the island to the" large land "of the wooden bridge. By the way, the big water was blurred by a few neighboring foresters and the very incident The whole stacks of boards carried us, which were always missing for formwork and construction forests. Let us return to Leningrad, and the permanent workers will remain on BAM to work and live, and this is a completely different “adventure”, especially in winter, ”Vladimir Abarbanel shares memories.
The pathos of the anniversary
The anniversary of the BAM will be celebrated at the highest level. The main event will be the teleconference with the head of state Vladimir Putin, who will start the construction of the new line of the highway. At his direction, a silver link will be laid in the railway track.
Festive events will also be held in all regions of BAM: Buryatia, Yakutia, Amur Region, Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories. In these regions there will be exhibitions, concerts and festive festivities.
Residents of Komsomolsk-on-Amur told Radio Liberty correspondent Lyudmila Smirnova if they consider BAM a successful construction and whether such a grandiose project of modern Russia is needed:
July 8, 40 years old Bama - the most expensive infrastructure project of the USSR. Russian authorities plan to develop the road further
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