This was reported by a source familiar with the work of the intergovernmental Commission on investment cooperation between the two countries.
As previously reported, in June 2016, Rubicon LLC, a joint venture of the Russian direct investment Fund (RDIF), China Investment Corporation (CIC) and the far East and Baikal region development Fund (Frdvibr) controlled by Vnesheconombank, signed a General contract with USCM.
The document for the facility, located in the area of the nizhneleninskoe (Russian Federation) — Tongjiang (China) checkpoints, stipulated the terms and conditions for the construction of the structure, the government of the EAO reported. At the same time, it was noted that the contractor has a task to reduce the time of work completion (from the planned 24 months). At the same time, it was reported that USK MOST started working at the facility.
The project to build a 2.2 km railway bridge between the Russian Federation and China across the Amur river has been implemented for several years. The Russian part accounts for 309 meters. The Chinese side has already built a bridge over 1,755 thousand meters. The Russian side will have to erect four pillars and install three spans with a length of 315 m. The cost of the Russian part of the project is about 9 billion rubles, of which the bridge will cost 4 billion rubles.
Rubicon is the owner of the project documentation and land plots, and acts as a customer for the construction of infrastructure for the Russian part of the project. The company is 75% controlled by the Russian-Chinese Investment Fund (RCIF, created by CIC and RDIF) and 25% by the Frdvibr. The government of the Jewish Autonomous region is responsible for the implementation of the Russian part of the project, and the coordinator is the Ministry of transport of the Russian Federation.
Initially, cargo traffic is expected to reach 5.2 million tons per year (mainly sending coal, iron ore, timber and containers for export). In the future, after the reconstruction of the Birobidzhan-Leninsk railway section, owned by Russian Railways, the capacity should increase to 20 million tons.
In October 2015 The Fund for the development of the Far East and the Baikal region has agreed on the terms of the agreement. The RCIF conducted a request for proposals to select a General contractor and identified China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), which offered the lowest contract price. However, according to an Interfax source, after several months of negotiations, CCECC refused to take the risk of the project and fix the cost of the contract.
In this regard, the RCIF and the Fund decided to hold talks with Russian contractors, including Russian Railways structures, Interfax notes.
In December 2015, a corresponding meeting was held with representatives of the Fund, RDIF and the President of the railway monopoly, Oleg Belozerov. The parties agreed that Russian Railways will submit its proposal within three weeks. These issues were supposed to be discussed on February 3, 2016 at a meeting of Rubicon owners, but due to the absence of representatives of the RCIF, it was declared invalid. After that, in the course of the competition, USK Most, a part of the group of SK Most, was selected as the General contractor.
The Agency’s interlocutor also noted that the intergovernmental Commission is considering a number of transport projects within the framework of combining the initiatives of the Eurasian economic Union and the silk road Economic belt. The latter is perceived by the Russian side as an opportunity to improve transport infrastructure using Chinese investments and to realize the transit potential of the Russian Federation. As part of the negotiations, a number of projects for the partnership have been identified.
These include as already implemented in Russia development projects “Eastern site” of Railways, the construction of the Northern latitudinal, development of Murmansk transport node and terminal and logistics centres (TLC) on the basis of TLC “White Rust” (Moscow region) and TLC “South Ural (Chelyabinsk region), and a number of new. In particular, the project of the TRANS-Baikal grain terminal, as well as the Primorye-2 international transport corridor (with the construction of the Large port of Zarubino) and the Moscow-Beijing high-speed highway are considered appropriate for implementation. The last two are considered appropriate to finalize.
IA “East of Russia”