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Murmansk fights Moscow over Transport Hub

Marina Kovtun is trying to save the Murmansk Transport Hub.

Governor Marina Kovtun is putting up a fight with the federal government over plans to move 30 billion roubles of planned investments in the Murmansk Transport Hub to new projects in the Crimea.

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Kovtun this week met with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his deputy Arkady Dvorkovich in a bid to get assurances on continued government support to the grand local infrastructure project. Following the meeting, the governor underlined that the development of the Transport Hub will continue in line with previously agreed budgets and time schedules.

“The resolution of the Premier is that the project is to be implemented to the full extent and in the settled time frame”, Kovtun says in a press release. During her Moscow visit, Kovtun also signed an additional agreement, which reaffirms the commitment of the involved parts, among them the Ministry of Transport and Rosneft, the Murmansk regional administration informs.

The hassle over the major infrastructure project in Murmansk started after the federal government in early April announced that it intended to move 31,5 billion roubles of state money from the Murmansk Transport Hub project to other infrastructure projects in the Crimea. The decision was taken despite assurances from President Putin that the major upcoming state investments in the Crimea will not affect projects in other parts of the country, Kommersant reports.

The Murmansk Transport Hub has a price tag of 132,2 billlion roubles, of which 56,5 billion is to be taken from the federal budget.

The infrastructure project has long been a key priority project for the Murmansk Government, but was put on hold after Gazprom’s indefinite postponement of the Shtokman project. The engagement of Rosneft gave new life to the initiative.

The Transport Hub includes the construction of a new 28 km long railway line on the western shore of the Kola Bay, as well as several new port facilities.