Russian President Vladimir Putin participated via video link in the opening ceremony of the Pacific Railway.
The construction of the магистраль, which is over 500 kilometers long, took less than three years. Investments in the project amounted to 146 billion rubles, entirely from private capital. The road was built by the coal mining company «Эльга», which connects the Elga deposit in Yakutia with the export terminal on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in the Khabarovsk Territory.
The railway began operating in test mode at the end of 2024. Project work is currently underway to build a second line. By 2026, «Эльга» plans to increase coal transportation capacity to 30 million tons per year.
The Pacific магистраль stretches through hard-to-reach taiga and became the first private railway of such scale in the Far East. Its throughput capacity is estimated at 50 million tons of coal annually in the future.
The ТЖД has become the third key transport artery of the region, along with the Trans-Siberian Railway and the BAM. The new route forms part of the Russia-Asia-Pacific logistics corridor, opens up opportunities for diversifying cargo flows, and supports the development of the metallurgical, machine-building, construction, and related industries.