New year-round port to link Russian Arctic sea route with Asia in 2025

About $5 million has been invested in the construction of a deepwater year-round port near Indiga, a settlement on Russia’s Barents Sea coast, according to the Arkhangelsk Region’s Acting Governor Alexander Tsybulsky.

He told reporters that exploration and geological work has already been completed at the site. Construction is expected to start next year and be completed in 2025. Investment in the project may exceed 300 billion rubles (over $4 billion). 

The new hub will have the capacity to handle 80-200 million tons of cargo per year, dealing with shipping from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Japan and China. The new port will primarily handle shipments of coking coal, wood, fertilizers, chemical products and paper.

Tsybulsky expects a major economic boost if the new Arctic-bound railway, Belkomur, is connected to the Indiga port. "We will be able to handle most export cargo, which is now shipped via St. Petersburg, and thereby offer economic conditions for our investors to be able to develop here more actively and not waste money on transport," he said. "On the other hand, we will boost the economy, including that of the Northern Sea Route."

The Belkomur project is a new rail line, which will connect the industrial regions of Siberia and the Urals with ports in Russia’s north and north-west. The international railway route across Russia (between Russia’s European north and China) will cut the distance for deliveries from Siberia and the Urals by 800km. The route will offer the shortest access to the Northern Sea Route’s major ports (Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Belomorsk and Sabetta, and in the future, Indiga and others).

“We can create the Asia – Northern Sea Route transport corridor. When combined, these two projects – the construction of a port in Indiga and the Belkomur railway – will provide the necessary economic base, which they lacked separately,” said the acting governor.

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