Russian govt suspends Northern Latitudinal Railway project in favor of eastern direction

MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax) - The Russian government has suspended construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway in favor of development of the eastern direction, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin told reporters on the sidelines of the Transport Week 2022 forum.

"As for the Northern Latitudinal Railway, we have suspended this project for now," Khusnullin said in response to a respective question.

"For the time being, we are building and fully concentrating our capacities on the eastern direction, the [RZD] Eastern Polygon project," he said.

"Besides, we are stepping up construction of the Murmansk railway hub. Our chief project has passed evaluation, and we will hold a tender by the end of this year to choose the contractor. So, this direction will be developed as well," Khusnullin said.

"Once we launch our two main directions, given the changed logistics, we will go back to the Northern Latitudinal Railway, It's a rather expensive project, but I believe it definitely has a developmental potential," he said.

The Northern Latitudinal Railway (Obskaya-Salekhard-Nadym-Khorei), with an annual capacity of 23.9 million tonnes of cargo, will shorten the routes from deposits in northern parts of West Siberia to ports in the Baltic, Barents and Kara seas and will ensure development of the Arctic.