The construction of two new railroads with the total length of 1,500 kilometers is to begin in the Urals in 2010, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Petr Latyshev informed Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev.

Petr Latyshev said this would be done within the framework of the project on the industrial development of the northern parts of the Urals (known as The Industrial Urals-The Polar Urals). In fact, the project has already moved into the implementation stage, as the main railroad from Polunochnaya station to Obskaya station is already being designed at the moment.

‘All the design work involving 890 kilometers worth of railways will have been finished by March 2009,’ he noted.

‘What is more, we are also working on the design of another railway from Salekhard which will be 380 kilometers long; the design will be complete next year, so the construction can begin in 2010,’ Petr Latyshev added. The investment program for the project has already been confirmed by the authorities, with the first portion of money (4 billion RUR) expected within the next few days.

‘Yet we are worried about financing the project in 2010-2015, as some 25 billion RUR are needed every year,’ Latyshev said.