Tunnel Kislovodsk - Sochi: multi-billion dollar project

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Will the Kislovodsk-Sochi tunnel be built? You will learn about this and more by reading this fascinating article.

One of the most beautiful cities in Russia - Sochi and Kislovodsk - are famous for a large number of climatic and balneological resorts. Both in the Krasnodar Territory and on the territory of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody there are several dozen ski resorts. Residents of these two tourist destinations have long dreamed of becoming closer to each other, because this is a great opportunity to diversify their leisure time and visit places where you have never been, expand your horizons and, in the end, heal your he alth.

A bit of geography

Geographically, these cities are located close to each other, when viewed from a bird's eye view. If you go from one city to another by car, it will take about 11 hours. The thing is that the route goes around the Caucasian mountain ranges, so the journey takes much longer than it might seem at first glance. You might think that there is nothing to be done - this is how mother nature ordered it! However, humanity has long learned to overcome natural barriers, although this is sometimesdifficult and even dangerous. In the pursuit of economic and ergonomic benefits, few people are stopped by natural factors.

Communists dreamed of this

The idea to bring together the Krasnodar Territory and the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody originated a long time ago, back in the 60s of the last century. Only now they began to translate it into reality relatively recently. This project has been frozen repeatedly: sometimes due to insufficient funding, sometimes due to insufficient project development. The main ground part of the route, connecting some cities, has long been built and even restored several times. There is very little left to build - we are talking about several tens of kilometers.

Who will drill the tunnels and who will be the sponsor

The construction of a new route involves the drilling of large layers of rock and several tunnels in the mountains - this is the main inhibitory factor in the construction. Indeed, if you look deeper, you can see how difficult the work in this direction is: in order to build the Kislovodsk-Sochi tunnel in a certain area, it is necessary to drill piles of stones and mountains. The track is already more than half built, but construction has been suspended due to the fact that the path runs through a very high mountain in an earthquake zone. To build a tunnel between Kislovodsk and Sochi, the Russian government is attracting various investors, including China. In July 2017, one of the well-known Chinese construction companies took the initiative and offered to do the most difficult jobthis project. As a result of the negotiations, Russia agreed to mutually beneficial cooperation with China.

After consideration of the project by the government, it will be known how everything will be implemented. So far, two options have been presented: with the help of a public-private partnership or completely at the expense of the Federation's budget. Let's wait now to see what happens.

Exact figures for the Kislovodsk-Sochi Tunnel project

Now let's move on to the exact numbers: according to the latest data from the media from April 2017, the track is planned to open by 2020. It will, apparently, be paid, since a lot of money has already been invested in it. The planned amount of total investments will be about 200 billion rubles. Previously, it was said about 60-80 billion, but the budget has grown dramatically. Why is it so expensive, you ask? It's all about the tunnels - the bulk of the funds will go just for their construction and infrastructure equipment.

How much to pay for the fare

The fare on this short route will be about 1000 rubles per person. The fare was calculated due to the fact that the traveler will save about 1,500 rubles on fuel. As a result, everyone will benefit: both tourists and investors.

The length of the route Kislovodsk - Sochi will be 334 kilometers, which is almost two times shorter than the old route. Accordingly, the travel time from one point to another will be half as much and will be about 5 hours. What will be the length of the tunnel Kislovodsk - Sochi? It is planned to build twotunnels, each 12 kilometers long.

Discussions on the Sochi tunnel project via Kislovodsk

that nevertheless it will happen and they will easily be able to overcome the path from the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody to the Krasnodar Territory and back. As mentioned above, both parties are strongly interested in this.

Very often in news bulletins, residents can hear a description of the Kislovodsk-Sochi tunnel, but, as a rule, this is just a description while driving through a certain tunnel, this video is broadcast by private individuals either as a prank, or in order to laugh at the corrupt system of Russia. Someone fiercely condemns that the construction of this project was entrusted to Chinese builders, someone says that Russian builders can’t do anything, someone is indignant that money from our country will go to China, and someone claims that with from the point of view of the economy, this project is not entirely beneficial for Russia. Everything is as usual: pessimists, optimists and neutrals.

As for justified fears: the route may run through the Biosphere Reserve and the Sochi National Park - this is the main dilemma of environmentalists and builders.