High Speed Rail Tender

Scope of WorkTo Build 1080km high-speed Rail line from St Petersburg via Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod.DescriptionThe proposal supersedes earlier plans to build a 762km high-speed line from Moscow via Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan. The cost of the new project is estimated at Roubles 2.3 trillion US 19bn of which Roubles 1.65 trillion is for the 659km St Petersburg Moscow section and Roubles 530bn for the 421km section to Nizhny Novgorod. To keep costs down high-speed trains will operate over existing tracks to reach the centres of Moscow and St Petersburg.RZD said in August that the Moscow St Petersburg section will be based on a public-private partnership PPP with a concessionaire appointed to implement it.Under the plan RZD envisages grants and loans of around Roubles 600bn to the concessionaire and issuing green bonds worth about Roubles 300bn for the Moscow St Petersburg section. Annual operating costs are estimated at Roubles 47.2bn.It is envisaged that the Moscow Nizhny Novgorod line would open first in 2024 and would carry 16.8 million passengers a year. Opening of the Moscow St Petersburg section would follow in the fourth quarter of 2026. Traffic is estimated at 30.6 million passengers a year with the Sapsan high-speed service continuing to operate on the conventional line between the two cities.