UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 9, 2019. A tram line connecting Yekaterinburg with Verkhnyaya Pyshma is under way, Yekaterinburg Council’s website states.

UMMC Holding’s engineering branch is currently building the tram link from both ends. So far, the woods have been cleared for the railways, earthwork is being prepared, and structures that stand in the way are being pulled down, the town council’s website says.

According to Yekaterinburg Council Construction Committee, all jobs have to get done inside the existing urban sprawl and public transit network, so parts of the engineering infrastructure will have to get relocated. The contractor UMMC Engineering Center will have completed all the building and installation work by the end of 2020.

According to Vice Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Capital Repairs & Land Use Alexei Biryulin, both cities need the tram link badly. A new residential area will soon emerge in the north of Yekaterinburg, a future home to 24,000 residents. A new train station and a mall will get built at the intersection of Shefskaya St and Kosmonavtov Ave. Also, five new residential districts will be put in Verkhnyaya Pyshma.

‘This will ensure even closer communication between the two cities, with more people and vehicles going both ways. So developing the intercity transit system is vital,’ Biryulin stressed.

The work on the tram link between Yekaterinburg and Verkhnyaya Pyshma started in April 2018 within the framework of a four-party agreement signed by Sverdlovsk Region Government, Yekaterinburg Council, Verkhnyaya Pyshma Council, and UMMC Holding.