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Budget money to road – not border station

The worst part of the E105 road between Murmansk and Kirkenes is today on the Norwegian side of the border.

In its budget for 2011 the Norwegian Government gives funding to improve the road towards Russia, but no money to build a new border station.

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The proposed 2011 state budget was presented by the Government on Tuesday. The government says building east-west transport infrastructure is one of its priorities.

NOK 25 million (€3,12 million) is granted to start the reconstruction of the road from the Russian border towards Kirkenes, the E105. The work is expected to start in April 2011.

The work on the road will continue for some years and is listed as one of only five new road works in Norway to start in 2011, according to the webportal of the Norwegian Ministry of Transportation.

On the Russian side of the border, road E105 has been substantially upgraded over the last three years from the border to Norway in the west to Murmansk in the east.

Part of the road on the Russian side of the border, some 17 kilometres between Nikel and Borisoglebsk, was upgraded with financial support from Norway some 7-8 years ago.

Read also: Murmansk spends more on road infrastructure to Norway

The state budget does however not give any funding to start the work on upgrading the border station at Storskog itself.

Storskog border station is the only legal border crossing point between Norway and Russia. In peak-hours the queue of cars can stretch back hundreds of meters. The border station is far from dimensioned to handle such peak traffic and it was expected that the first part of the funding to build a new border station would come in the 2011 state budget.

Last year, a working group on the Norwegian side presented a report outlining ways to expand the border station at Storskog to meet the increase in traffic.

Read also: Easier border crossing is a priority