MOSCOW: China has announced to spend $5.2 billion (300 billion rubles) on Russia’s first high-speed rail project.
The bulk of the investment, $4.3 billion at current exchange rates (250 billion rubles) will come in the form of 20-year loans from Chinese banks, and the other $860 million would come as an equity payment from the Chinese company in charge of the project, RIA Novosti reported Sunday, citing sources familiar with the proposal.
Train travel from Moscow to Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan republic, will be shorted to just 3 and a half hour instead of the more than 14 hours it takes now. The train will be able to reach speeds of 400 kilometers per hour. It will also reduce the travel time between Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s third largest city, to just ninety minutes from the more than 10 and a half hours it currently takes.
