A Chinese state-run building company may be invited to participate in constructing a transport corridor from Krasnodarski Krai to Crimea across the Kerch Strait. A part of investments in the $1.2-3 billion project will be made in yuan, Kommersant said on May 5. The newspaper said that the Russian Ministry of Transport plans to conclude a memorandum with Chinese companies on the construction of the transport corridor across the Kerch Strait. The document may be signed during the visit of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to Beijing in the latter half of May. “An engineering design model has not been approved yet. The possibility of building an automobile-and-railway bridge or a bridge and an underwater tunnel is under consideration”, - the newspaper reports.
The private-owned investment fund China International Fund Ltd is going to take part in financing the project, and state-run building company China International Fund Ltd will construct the bridge.
Preliminary documents for the project should be elaborated by May 30; the financial scheme and construction model will be developed in July. The project may involve major Russian companies along with Chinese participants.
Presently, Crimea and Krasnodarski Krai are linked by a sea ferry line for passengers, vehicles, and railroad trains through the Kerch Strait. The ferry boats go to the port of Crimea and the port of Caucasus. The ferry line is located in the lowest part of the Kerch Strait and works year-round. In late March, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Transport Ministry to prepare an offer to provide transport accessibility of Crimea and Sevastopol. As Kommersant reports, the Avtodor, the state-run "Russian Automobile Roads" Company, will develop the project of the bridge across the Kerch Strait. The cost of the transport corridor to Crimea is over 45 billion rubles.
China Railway Construction Corporation Limited is the second largest state-run building company in China. It constructs railway infrastructure, tunnels, bridges, motorways, airports, and ports.