RZD signs concession agreement on Northern Latitudinal Railway

The government of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous district and Russian Railways signed an agreement on joint implementation of the construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway “Ob – Salekhard – Nadym – Khorey – Pangody – Novy Urengoy – Korotchaevo”.
“For Russian Railways will be the first project under the concession scheme. In fact, the company is making a real step in the direction of public-private partnership in the construction of railway infrastructure,” RZD’s president Oleg Belozerov said.
Within the agreement, RZD will take over the reconstruction of Pangody – Novy Urengoy – Korotchaevo rail section. The Yamalo-Nenets District administration will be responsible for the construction of the motorway bridge across the Ob river.
The project’s total cost is estimated to 190 billion rubles (USD 2.6 billion), and the project for the Ob river bridge is estimated to 70 billion rubles (USD 957.6 million). The construction of the Northern latitudinal line (Obskaya – Salekhard – Nadym – Pangody – Novy Urengoy – Korotchaevo) is planned for 2018 and 2022. The total length of the line is 707 km and the projected traffic volume is 23.9 million tonnes (mainly gas condensate and oil cargo).
The project is an important element for the region to ensure the development of the richest deposits of Northern Urals and the Arctic zone of Russia.
The current railway, with a length of 312 km, has to be rehabilitated and modernized and, to complete a line, the project also includes the construction of 395 km of rail lines and also of a terminal port. The line is also called the “Arctic’s energy”, and will connect other lines – Severnaya and Sverdlovskaya, and will extend towards the Sabetta port.
Within this project, in 2011, the Czech company OHL ŽS signed a EUR 2 billion contract with Yamal Railway Company for the construction of the Obskaya – Salechard – Nadym section line, including the bridge over the Ob river. In January 2016, the Russian company VIS TransStroy was awarded the contract for the extension of the Northern Latitudinal Railway by building the Bovanenkovo – Sabetta line.