Is Russia interested in “Western Europe – Western China” project, was reported by the MID RoK

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Whether the agreements with Russia under the construction of a highway on its territory, within the framework of the "Western Europe - Western China" transnational project remain in force, were reported in the MID of RK, Tengrinews.kz reports.

The publications about the weak interest of the Russian Federation in the project appeared repeatedly in the media.

According to the ministry, the project was born in 2008, when a memorandum was signed between the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation on cooperation and development of highways along the route "St. Petersburg-Kazan-Orenburg-Aktobe-Almaty-PRC border". Five years later, construction work was completed on the territory of the PRC (3425 kilometers).

Currently, traffic is open in Kazakhstan along the entire length of the international transit corridor, 2,787 kilometers in length, with the exception of the construction of the tunnel (all work is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018).

As for construction works on the Russian side, then, according to the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, they are currently being carried out in the following sections: St. Petersburg - Moscow - Kazan - Orenburg - border of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The length of the entire section is 2233 kilometers.

"Following the agreement with the Russian side, Russia pledged to complete construction. According to the Russian side, work is underway between Moscow and St. Petersburg; it is scheduled to put into operation the section in 2018. Currently, according to the Russian side, the possibility of implementing perspective investment projects in the framework of the formation of the MTM "Western Europe - Western China", including the construction project on the principles of public-private partnership of a new highway from Kazan to the border of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the subsequent operation of this road on toll basis"- is written in the agency's response to the official request of Tengrinews.kz.

The whole route looks like this: St. Petersburg - Moscow bypass from the northeast along the Central Ring Road - Vladimir - Nizhny Novgorod - Kazan - Orenburg - border of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Also, the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan explained that Aktau will not become the end point of the corridor on the territory of Kazakhstan. Such is the checkpoint "Zhaisan", which is located on "Aktobe - Martuk" section (further to Orenburg).

"Currently, all transit in the direction of Moscow and further to Europe passes through St. Petersburg. The project will provide cargo transportation in three main directions China-Kazakhstan (25 percent), China-Central Asia (35 percent), China-Kazakhstan-Russia- Western Europe (40 percent).

For example, in road transport in 2017, transit through the territory of Kazakhstan transported a record volume of cargo over the past 5 years - 2.1 million tons, this was facilitated by the commissioning of the Western Europe - Western China MTM. Of course, the completion of construction and putting into operation of this international corridor on the territory of the Russian Federation could increase these figures by several times" the Ministry of Investment and Development of Kazakhstan noted.

According to the ministry, the average annual total economic effect from the project implementation is estimated at 195.5 billion tenge (according to the feasibility study, without taking into account the effect of inflation):

- from reduction of travel time - 33.9 billion tenge,

- from reducing the number of accidents - 49.9 billion tenge.

- from the number of those killed in the accident - 19.3 billion tenge,

- from reducing the cost of operating vehicles - 9.5 billion tenge.

- due to the growth of the gross regional product (GRP) - 82.9 billion tenge.

Compared with the existing alternative corridors (road Transsib, sea through the Suez Canal), the Western Europe-Western China MTM gains in length and time in transit, is added by the MID of Kazakhstan.

“If by sea it takes up to 45 days to travel, and by Transsib it takes 14 days, then the “Western Europe-Western China” corridor (from the port of Lianyungang to the borders with European countries) takes about 10 days (when the journey is 10 hours a day, with two drivers, with an average speed of 80 kilometers per hour) ", - stated in the answer.

According to expectations, by 2020 the volume of freight traffic along the route will increase by 2.5 times - from 13 million to 33 million tons per year).

The road will cover 240 settlements in Kazakhstan (Almaty region - 53, Zhambyl region - 41, South Kazakhstan - 54, Kyzylorda region - 33, Aktobe region - 19) with a total population of about 5.5 million people.

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