The members of the BEATA steering committee in the meeting highlighted the role of transport infrastructure in the Barents Cooperation. Infrastructure is a main prerequisite for the development of trade and industry, as well as for tourism, culture and social welfare, they underlined.
For the Barents countries Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the BEATA cooperation is the important tool for coordination of national strategies and projects, BarentsObserver Arkhangelsk reports.
Parallel to the steering committee meeting, a conference on “Prospects for the development of internatonal economic and transport relations in the Barents Region” was held.
The BEATA representatives believe the Barents Region in the future could develop into a key part of a transport corridor between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. An important step in this direction is the construction of the 123 km long railroad between Ledmozero and Kochkoma in Karelia which will connect the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk sea ports with Petrozavodsk, Oulu and Umea. The railroad construction is already finished and currently the works for its electrification and equipping by signal devices can be started.
The next step is the construction of the Belkomur, a railroad connecting Arkhangelsk with Komi and Perm, the BEATA members maintain. This huge project will should shorten the way between Siberia and the White sea ports by 800 kilometers and open new efficient ways for cargo flows from the Urals and Siberia industrial zones to Europe.
Another ambitious project presented in the conference by Andrey Getman, adviser in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug administration is the construction of the “Barentskomur” railroad between Syktyvkar and Indiga, and the new big sea port in the area of Svyatoy Nos on the Pechora Sea coast.
BarentsObserver Arkhangelsk
