Mongolia revving up to build Russia-China highway - BUSINESS NEW EUROPE: "Mongolia is planning to build its first modern highway. The route will cross the country to link China and Russia, with the Central Asia country hoping to position itself as a transit point for growing trade between the two giants.
The 1,000km Altanbulag-Ulaanbaatar-Zamiin-Uud highway will cost around $3.5bn and will be built under a concession agreement, the Montsame News Agency reports. Mongolia's Chinggis Land Development Group – a consortium involving over a dozen state companies – says it will finance 30% of the construction costs from its own funds. It hopes to find foreign investors to provide the remaining 70%, and claims to have interest from the US and Italy.
It may need to quickly make that interest concrete however, with Chinggis saying it plans to start building the highway in May, with a completion date of 2015. The investors will operate the toll road until 2040, when the asset will be transferred to the state.
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'via Blog this'
