Shortest China-Europe highway gets nod from Russia

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Meridian Highway, a new toll stretching 1,250 miles across Russia will be connecting Belarus border to the frontier with Kazakhstan. The privately financed new toll motorway will act as a “Moscow bypass” for traffic between Europe and China.

The proposal has been approved by the Kremlin and work has started between Moscow and Minsk. Some of the deprived areas of the world’s biggest country will be covering it which is also known as the ‘Russia’s Rust Belt’.

 Aroudn 600bn roubles (£7.5bn) will be the cost of the new toll link and this will be built by using a public-private partnership. There will be guarantee to investors about returns.

 The trucks between Europe and China will be the main source of revenue and some of the freight currently used by the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Suez Canal will be taken by it.

The ports of Hamburg and Shanghai will be connected by the Meridian Highway which is a western competent of a  new Russia-Western China highway. It stretches over 5,000 miles and is a one of a number of projects promoted by Beijing as part of the China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

 The new road is expected to improve access to western Russia and western visitors and will be providing vastly improved connections between Europe and central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan .

However, the visa rules for both Russia and Belarus are currently difficult.

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