A working meeting was held in Moscow between Andrey Chibis, Governor of the Murmansk Region, and Andrey Nikitin, Minister of Transport of Russia. The parties discussed issues of integrated development of the region's transport infrastructure.
The Governor stressed that the relevant instructions were given by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin during the International Arctic Forum in Murmansk in March this year.
"The implementation of projects is of strategic importance for the development of the Arctic, the Northern Sea Route and the Transarctic Transport Corridor, these are global goals announced by the head of state. This includes the comprehensive development of the Murmansk transport hub and a 3-fold increase in the capacity of the port of Murmansk through the construction of new terminals and the expansion of railway approaches. This will turn the Murmansk Region into a powerful multimodal transport hub of the Transarctic Corridor. A large part of the work is to provide facilities with the necessary energy infrastructure," said Andrey Chibis.
The most important task is to create short-range railway approaches. In December 2023, a working movement was launched along the new Weekend-Lavna railway line with a bridge crossing over the Tuloma River, which also made it possible to start shipping coal from the new transshipment complex, which was launched in March this year. Now it is necessary to complete the access roads – about 50 km in order to reach the planned 18 million tons of cargo per year.
"We discussed with our federal colleagues the issues that were hindering the process. They were worked out earlier with our partners, the Port Infrastructure Development Center JSC. The necessary solutions have been found today, and work continues," the governor said.
The issue of modernization of the region's airports was also raised during the meeting. Preparations are currently underway for the launch of the new terminal at Murmansk Airport. They also discussed the modernization of the Khibiny airport and issues related to the coordination of the deployment of raid complexes in the Kola Bay.
It should be recalled that the issues of developing the MTU as a basic logistics complex for the Northern Sea Route and the TTC are being systematically worked out by Governor Andrey Chibis, including within the framework of the Northern Sea Route and the Arctic Commission of the State Council headed by him. As a result of the work, the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin was received.
"The development of the Murmansk Region's transport system is a national task. Logistics, exports, and the future of the Arctic depend on it. The Federal Center hears and supports us," Andrei Chibis concluded and thanked the minister and the department's team for the constructive dialogue.
/ Ministry of Information Policy of the Murmansk Region /