The popular road café was closed November 1st. The café is owned by the Murmansk committee for property relations. According to MBNews , new variants of investment for the development of the café and the toilet is now under consideration.
According to the website Pechenga.ru some of the problem enforcing the committee for property relations to close complex at Titovka was problems with a commercial organization operating there without an appropriate contract.
The round-the-clock-open café has served the travelers since the mid 90ties. It is located 100 kilometer from Murmansk to the east and 150 kilometers from the border check-point to Norway to the west.
After BarentsObserver wrote about the closure in late October, many negative reactions have come among the frequent travelers on this Arctic highway (E105 / M18). The editor of the local Norwegian border town newspaper in Kirkenes, Sør-Varanger Avis, wrote an editorial about the closure of Titovka road café entitled “a loss” describing the feelings among the drivers on the remote highway between Norway and Murmansk.
Originally, the barracks that house the café were workmen’s hut for the drivers of the snow ploughs that kept the road over the mountains opened during winter time. Those days, the snow clearing was partly financed by Norway, and the barracks were brought in from Norway. When the Norwegian financing ended, the café was opened.
