The first cross-border crossing between the countries was opened between Russia and China via the Amur River. He won after two years of inactivity due to the coronavirus pandemic. The facility was originally scheduled to open in November 2020.
The opening ceremony was held with the help of a teleconference from studios in Moscow, Vladivostok, Beijing, and sites in Blagoveshchensk and Heihe.
“Let’s go,” said Heilongjiang Province Governor Hua Changsheng in Russian as he started the movement.
Due to coronavirus restrictions in China, only freight transport will travel for now. According to the technical specifications, 630 trucks, 164 buses and 68 cars will be able to cross the bridge from Blagoveshchensk to Heihe every day.
Thus, eight Russian tractors from the Gazprom Helium Service fleet became the first to go to China. They run on liquefied natural gas. Eight Chinese trucks set out to greet them carrying automobile tires and electrical equipment components.
At the same time, pedestrians will not be able to walk on the bridge – only cars. As Izvestia correspondent Yevgeny Podtergera noted, the builders provided only technical pedestrian zones. They will be used for the maintenance of openings.
“In today’s divided world, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge between Russia and China is particularly important. “It will become another thread connecting the peoples of Russia and China,” he said. Participated remotely.
Trutnev noted that the feature of the bridge is that it is possible to build it without using budgetary funds. 19 billion rubles were invested in the project, including 14 billion rubles. Invested by Russian investors. Russian Deputy Prime Minister expressed the opinion that the bridge will pay for itself.
Trutnev, the importance of the bridge, “It shortens the road by 300 kilometers, and accordingly, transportation costs are reduced and a significant number of people can use this bridge.”
According to Vasily Orlov, the Governor of the Amur Region, the average wage for a car will be 8,700 rubles. Once the bridge pays for itself, prices will drop. It is estimated that this will happen in 15 years and will take about half a century, according to Ren TV.
The Minister of Transport of Russia, Vitaly Savelyev Savelyev, believes that the opening of the bridge will make it possible to increase the volume of cargo turnover by up to one million tons per year, as well as reduce costs and transport time.
Trutnev, Vladimir Putin’s Plenipotentiary in the Far East, pointed out that if we talk about “Russia’s return to the east”, then it is worth expanding the Trans-Siberian Railway to build bridges across the Amur. Therefore, all these studies are of great importance not only for the Far East, not only for the Amur Region, but also for the whole of Russia.
The Chinese side plans to use the opportunity to launch the bridge and “provide better logistics services”. “With joint efforts, we will turn the bridge into a bridge of friendship and cooperation,” said Hu Chunhua, Vice Premier of the Chinese State Council.
Trutnev noted that thousands of people from both Russia and China took part in the construction of the bridge. The length of the bridge was 1080 m, the width of the road was 11 m (two lanes). It was built in Chinese between the village of Kanikurgan on the Russian coast and the village of Changfa in Heihe city district.
The total length of the bridge crossing is approximately 20 km. Of these, 6 km are roads in China, and a little more than 13 km are access roads on the territory of the Russian Federation. The bridge was built over the course of four years simultaneously from both sides, often in harsh weather conditions. Two sections of the bridge were moored in May 2019.
There is already a Nizhneleninskoye-Tongjiang railway bridge between Russia and China, located on the border of the Jewish Autonomous Okrug. The head of the Amur Region, Vasily Orlov, said that it is planned to build two more bridges to China, where trains will run: Dzhalinda – Mohe and Blagoveshchensk – Heihe.
“This is quite a remote possibility, many components need to be calculated. First of all, it is necessary to start with the traffic, to see how the cross-border bridge in the Jewish Autonomous Region will be loaded, how it will cope with the increased load of cargo turnover between our countries, “he said.