The Merano Forum international summit bringing together leaders in transport construction was held at the end of April in Merano, Italy.
Infrastructure projects around the world are seen as projects designed to help the economies of different countries overcome the ongoing crisis,"
said Russian Railways’ President Vladimir Yakunin when addressing the Forum.
He noted that Europe is showing interest in investing in Russia’s infrastructure, as evidenced by the successful Eurobond issues of Russian Railways. Foreign construction and logistics companies are also very interested in developing Russia’s infrastructure in the Far East and Siberia: the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur Mainlines.
Vladimir Yakunin reminded the Forum’s participants that the Russian government had decided to allocate 260 billion roubles to the development of rail infrastructure projects in the region. Indeed, the rail industry’s total investment by 2020 could reach 11 trillion roubles, including projects to develop high speed railways.
The Forum’s participants noted that Russian Railways had considerable experience in constructing railway infrastructure in difficult climatic conditions.
In particular, the Company has played a key role in creating a new modern transport infrastructure in preparation for the XXII Olympic and XI Paralympic Winter Games to be held in Sochi in 2014. The projects that Russian Railways has developed and is now implementing are unique in many respects, not only by Russian criteria, but also by global standards. The total length of railway lines under construction in Sochi is 157 km. Despite the fact that most of the construction involves complex engineering in difficult mountainous terrain, the Company managed to lay 12 mountain tunnels with a total length of 30 km in a very short time.
The Company’s international portfolio of ongoing projects demonstrates that Russian Railways is one of the leaders in vehicle design and construction, but it is also strong in development projects and the modernisation of railway infrastructure, with projects underway in Serbia, Armenia, Abkhazia, Mongolia and North Korea.
Vladimir Yakunin said that countries such as Greece, Vietnam, Indonesia and a number of states in the Persian Gulf, Latin America and Africa are on the list of promising international projects.
(Source: RZD)
