Russia, Mongolia To Upgrade Road & Rail Corridors and Increase Freight Transit

Russia and Mongolia are planning to update the plans to develop railway and roadway transport corridors by the end of the year, Russia’s Deputy Transport Minister, Alexei Shilo, has said.

Shilo was meeting with Batmunkh Nasantogtokh, the State Secretary of the Mongolian Ministry of Roads and Transport. They formalized the agreements at this week’s meeting of the transport working group of the Russia-Mongolia intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, and technical cooperation and discussed developing the Russia-Mongolia-China economic corridor.

That is intended to cater for growing volumes of freight transport between the countries and further develop Mongolia’s transit potential, as well as upgrade and develop the Ulaanbaatar Railway (UBTZ), which is operated as a Mongolian and Russian state joint venture. This railway was established in 1949 as a joint venture between the Mongolian People’s Republic and the Soviet Union and is now jointly owned by the Mongolian and Russian governments, with each having a 50% stake. Russian Railways holds the Russian equity.

During the meeting of the intergovernmental commission, Shilo highlighted the need to approve the 2026-2030 technical upgrade of the Ulan-Ude Railway in order to develop the central railway line of the Russia-Mongolia-China economic corridor. This is required to enable the route to handle 50 million tonnes of freight by 2030.

The participants also discussed highway connections between Russia and Mongolia, with Shilo adding, “The importance of developing cross-border highways, including the AH3 and AH4 routes of the Asian Highway Network was discussed. We agreed by the end of November this year to exchange highway development plans for the Asian Highway Network.”