Russians Discuss Rail Development in Eastern Siberia

May 21 (LPAC) --Russia's strategic Baikal-Amur railway in eastern Siberia needs a long-term development program to develop Russia's northeast, where almost 80% of Russia's mineral reserves lie, Russian Rail official Klimenko said at a conference in Irkutsk. Lyndon LaRouche has long emphasized the importance of the incredible mineral wealth of northeast Eurasia, for the whole planet.

A meeting of the Russian Federation Council commission on natural monopolies, held in Irkutsk May 18, showed that there is finally potential for investment in the BAM, Russian Railways senior official Vladimir Klimenko said, reported. Klimenko is head of Russian Railways department for cooperation with regional authorities. The BAM's present capacity is only 45%-50% of what was projected, and this reflects other problems with the northern region. There has been no comprehensive national approach, and the population is fleeing due to high unemployment and other bad conditions.

The BAM was built from 1974-84, about 600-700 km north of the route of the Trans-Siberian in far eastern Russia. Investment of some US$25 million will be needed to develop the BAM until 2020. "We've been waiting for a long time when the State authorities will show interest in problems of BAM," Klimenko said, continuing, "development of transport infrastructure, power engineering, oil and gas, coal, metallurgic and other branches" is needed. Alexei Vorotilkin, head of the Eastern-Siberian Railway, also spoke about projects to build up the rail infrastructure. Building the BAM itself was the most expensive initial investment which had to be made, to open up Siberian development, but in the economic collapse, especially after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the rail project has been allowed to stagnate.