Russia expands boundaries of Khabarovsk PDA for Pacific Ocean Railway, Elga port

KHABAROVSK. Oct 9 (Interfax) - The Russian government has expanded the boundaries of the Khabarovsk priority development area (PDA) for projects related to the development of the Elga coal field, the Cabinet said in a press release.

The boundaries have been expanded for the Elga port being built on the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean Railway, which will connect the coal deposit in Yakutia to the port.

The project will create about 1,500 jobs and attract about 89.5 billion rubles of private investment. However, the last time the cost of the projects was mentioned in September 2023, the cost of the port was put at 137 billion rubles, including credit financing. Even earlier, the cost of the railway and port was estimated at 146.6 billion rubles.

The railway is being built by Elgaugol to ship coal from the deposit to the Elga port with capacity to handle 30 million tonnes per year, which the company is also building itself. The throughput capacity of the railway might be expanded in future by 70% to 50 million tonnes per year.

Elgaugol began building the railway in 2022 and it is expected to open in 2025. The Elga deposit is Russia's largest and one of the world's biggest coking coal deposits, with JORC-compliant reserves of about 2.2 billion tonnes.

The principal owners of the Elga coal project are Albert Avdolyan and his business partners.