People stand in line to enter the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train, which serves as a free consultative and diagnostic medical centre, at a railway station of Divnogorsk, outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk May 26, 2014.
IN PHOTO: People stand in line to enter the Doctor Voino-Yasenecky Saint Luka train, which serves as a free consultative and diagnostic medical centre, at a railway station of Divnogorsk, outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk May 26, 2014. The train transports well-qualified medical personnel and equipment to assist about 200 patients a day and has been travelling annually from the main regional centre of Krasnoyarsk to distant settlements of Krasnoyarsk and Khakassia Regions, where hospitals and clinics are scarce, for the last seven years. The train has also a carriage which operates as a mobile Orthodox church. The train was named after an outstanding Russian surgeon, an Orthodox bishop and a GULAG prisoner Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky. Picture taken on May 26, 2014. Reuters/Stringer

Russia is mulling plans to construct an ambitious 12,400-mile superhighway to link the Atlantic and Pacific. Mooted by Russian Academy Of Science, the proposed Trans-Eurasian Belt Development project envisages the construction of a vast motorway across Russia that will connect with all existing networks in Europe.

Modelled on the lines of Trans-Siberian railway that covers cities such as Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Vladivostok, the ambitious project seeks to create a new transport route across Russia with a mega road and high-speed rail network that links Asia with Europe, reports the Telegraph.

At the meeting of the Russian Academy of Science, Vladimir Yakunin, the head of the Russian Railways presented the idea for Trans-Eurasian belt Development. During his presentation, Yakunin said such a scheme was vital to make Russia the new world centre for high-tech industries. Ultimately, it would become the first ever modern route from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west.

High Speed Train Link

Co-terminus with the high way plan will be a new high-speed train line along with pipelines that will be carrying gas and oil. The rail network will be extendable to the Chukotka region of Russia and then further across Bering Strait to Alaska so that overland trips from Britain to the U.S. via the Channel Tunnel will become feasible.

The developers are hoping that the project will help in boosting tourism and make Russia a global transportation hub. While presenting the proposal at Russian Academy of Science, Vladimir Fortov, Head of the Russian Academy of Science said the project is "very ambitious and expensive.” Fortov added that "it will solve many problems in the development of the vast region. The idea is based on the new technology of high-speed rail transport and building a new rail route near the Trans-Siberian Railway with the opportunity to go to Chukotka and Bering Strait and then to the American continent."

The Academy said the new project will create new cities and industries that will dot the high-speed railway and motorway routes, spanning the whole country. Cargo traffic on the railways is expected to grow by 56 million tonnes in 16 years.

Yakumin said if the idea takes off, it would create 10 to 15 new industries and a large number of new jobs will also get created besides fast tracking the development of Siberia and the Far East region.

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