On July 28, Russia inaugurated the second Baikal tunnel that is part of the 2,687-mile (4,324-km) Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railroad, a significant engineering feat that will greatly expand people and freight traffic. The first single-track Baikal tunnel, built in 1985, was a bottleneck to the BAM. The new, double-track tunnel, situated 35 miles away from the first tunnel, crosses the Baikal mountain ridge and connects two Russian regions: the tunnel’s western portal is situated in the Irkutsk Region and the eastern portal is in the Republic of Buryatia.
From his presidential office, by video teleconference, Russian President Putin optimistically celebrated the accomplishment, saying,
“Today, we are launching railway traffic through the second Baikal tunnel. I would like to warmly thank the specialists involved in building the second Baikal tunnel. You have completed major, tremendous work, you have accomplished complicated technological tasks, and you have made a weighty contribution to upgrading the Baikal-Amur Mainline.
“With the opening of the new tunnel, the throughput of one of our main railway lines will increase significantly, by several times in fact, from 17 pairs (of trains per day) to 33 during the first stage, and later on, up to 57 as far as I am aware. “ It will “give an additional impetus to economic and social development in a number of regions in Siberia and the Far East.
