First train crosses new bridge to western side of Kola Bay
It is a historic moment for Murmansk, regional governor Andrei Chibis underlined as Vladimir Putin declared the new infrastructure object for opened
The more than 1,300 meter long bridge is key component of the new railway line to Lavna, the seaport terminal on the western shore of the Kola Bay.
On 15 December, the bridge was officially launched by Vladimir Putin during the Russian national Railway Congress. In a speech, he highlighted the importance of the new railway, saying it would become key element in a new “Arctic hub” that ultimately will be connected with the Persian Gulf.
“Along the whole distance from Murmansk to the Iranian Bander-Abbas will, according to our specialists, be a seamless railway line based on the 1520 wide track standard [and] goods deliveries from Murmansk to Mumbai will take about 15 days, which is four times less than the traditional routes,” he said.
As the president was speaking, a video showed a several-hundred-meter-long train moving across the Tuloma River.
Ultimately, the train will be able to move all the way to Lavna, where a major new logistical hub is under development.
The railway line will be 46km long. It is built by Yamaltransstroy, the company that earlier built several major railway projects, among them the far northern line to Bovanenkovo in the Yamal Peninsula.
The railway line is part of the Murmansk Transport Hub, a major infrastructure project that has been promoted in Murmansk for more than ten years.
The project appeared to have come to halt in 2020, but was given new life following Russia’s full-scale onslaught on Ukraine in 2022.
In a meeting with federal authorities in July 2022, Putin underlined that the construction works must be given priority.
Everything necessary must be done to complete the Murmansk Transport Hub project as soon as possible, Putin instructed the government.
Also present at the meeting was the secretary of the security council, Nikolai Patrushev, who told Putin that the Baltic Sea “turns into an inland sea for NATO” as Finland and Sweden join NATO.
Patrushev argued that the importance of Murmansk now will be just as it was “in the years of the Great Patriotic War” (the Second World War, ed).
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