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Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America

From The TimesApril 20, 2007

Tony Halpin in Moscow

Russiahas unveiled an ambitious plan to build the world’s longest tunnelunder the Bering Strait as part of a transport corridor linking Europeand America via Siberia and Alaska.

The 64-mile (103km) tunnelwould connect the far east of Russia with Alaska, opening up theprospect of the ultimate rail trip across three quarters of the globefrom London to New York. The link would be twice as long as the ChannelTunnel connecting Britain and France.

The $65 billion (£33billion) mega-project aims to transform trade links between Russia andits former Cold War enemies across some of the world’s most desolateterrain. It would create a high-speed railway line, energy links and afibreoptic cable network.

Proposals for a tunnel under the BeringStrait were first advanced a century ago under Tsar Nicholas II butfoundered with the outbreak of the First World War and the RussianRevolution. The idea was revived after the collapse of the Soviet Unionbut was shelved once again in Russia’s financial meltdown of 1998.

Russianofficials insist that the tunnel is an economic idea whose time has nowcome and that it could be ready within ten years. They argue that itwould repay construction costs by stimulating up to 100 million tons offreight traffic each year, as well as supplying oil, gas andelectricity from Siberia to the US and Canada.

Maxim Bystrov,deputy head of Russia’s agency for special economic zones, said: “Thiswill be a business project, not a political one.” The tunnel across theinternational date-line would be built in three sections through twoislands in the Bering Strait and would link 6,000km (3,728 miles) ofnew railway lines. The tunnel alone would cost an estimated $10-12billion to construct.

The scheme is being championed by ViktorRazbegin, deputy head of industrial research at Russia’s Economic andTrade Development Ministry. He has long advocated a tunnel under theBering Strait to provide a land route between Russia and the US, andpublished a feasibility study in the 1990s.

He told journaliststhat state and commercial companies would form a public-privatepartnership to fund and run the project. A conference in Moscow nextweek will propose an inter-governmental agreement with the US tounderwrite construction of the transport link in return for a stake inthe business.

Russian Railways is said to be examining theconstruction of a 3,500km route from Pravaya Lena, south of Yakutsk, toUelen on the Bering Strait. The tunnel would connect this to a 2,000kmline from Cape Prince of Wales, in West Alaska, to Fort Nelson, inCanada.

The project could save Siberia and the US $20 billion ayear in electricity costs, according to Vasily Zubakin, deputy chiefexecutive of Hydro, a subsidiary of Russia’s main electricity producer,Unified Energy Systems. The company plans to build two giant tidalplants in the Far East to supply tengiga-watts of electricity by 2020.

However,some of those said to be involved in the project appeared sceptical.Sergei Grigoryev, vice-president of the state oil pipeline monopolyTransneft, said: “I’ve never heard of this plan. We need to firstdevelop fields in East Siberia.”

Others also questioned whetherit made economic sense, pointing out that Alaska has large oil reservesof its own and that China’s huge market was closer and more lucrative.

Thetunnel on the Russian side would start in the Chukotka region, governedby Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, who appearsunlikely to plough his fortune into such a risky venture.