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What is "Balt-Terminal"?
Much attention has been paid to the St.Petersburg transportation junction. This can be explained by the fact that all means of transportation carrying freight operate here, this is the result of the favourable geographical position of the city which provides about 40% of export-import transportation in Russia and 50% of all the transportation of the north-western region. President Yeltsin has backed Governor Yakovlev’s project “The European Gate of Russia” which aims to convert St.Petersburg into one of the largest trade and transportation junctions. The leading transportation firms of the city are supposed to play an important part in the realization of the project. These are: the October Railroad, motor transport companies, airlines and steamship lines as well as various shipping companies and agencies which try to create the most convenient conditions of freight transportation for their clients. We talked about the development of the St.Petersburg transportation junction and the problems of organising a multi-modular transportation process at the “round table” of our magazine. Victor Chernenko (V.C.) General Manager of the North-western financial-transportation company Transcom-Inter, his deputies German Timokhin (G.T.) and Valeryi Kim (V.K.) and the chief engineer of Lengiprotrans Institute Arkadyi Khralov (A.K.) took part in the round table discussion. V.C.: Our company was formed for the consolidation of efforts to provide a multi-modular transportation process in the North-West of Russia. Working together with the Committee for Economics and Industrial Policy, Town-planning and Architecture, with the Transportation Committee and using our expertise we’ve got a unique opportunity to accurately evaluate the actual state of transportation systems not only in St.Petersburg but in the whole North-western region. Reporter: What amount of work did you have to carry out to do this? V.C.: Working out “The Program for the Improvement and Development of the Transportation System of the North-West of the Russian Federation” was probably the basic task. It was made with the assistance of the North-West Association, the Transportation Committee of St.-Peterburg and some other subjects of the North-West. The work on the program allowed the gathering of extensive material about the transportation process in the North-West of Russia, to create an information base on the operation of each means of transportation, to state the major volumes and directions of freight streams. We have made transportation passports for St.Petersburg and other subjects of the North-West and determined the organisational, technical, economic and legal conditions of the realization of this program. The program defines the basic proposal of the project to create a multi-modular transportation complex “Balt-Terminal” and St.Petersburg logistical centre of multi-modular transportation. Reporter: What is the project of Balt-Terminal like? V.C.: Our task was to answer the question: How to unite separate terminal systems? Because under the planned economy transport systems developed separately and each of them had its own area of professional tasks and needs. We all know what it resulted in. Under the new economic conditions the piece-meal approach is inexpedient. If we do not combine the advantages of all means of transport for freight operations to achieve better results we will certainly lose. That’s why the idea of Balt-Terminal came into being. The project involves the creation of a system of big complexes surrounding the borders of St.Petersburg as a ring in the places of a junction of two or more means of transport, say, sea transport and land transport, a railroad and a highway, or all of them together, or in some other combination. Most of these terminals are located close to the circular highway, which will allow the organising of the transportation process on a new principle both in St.Petersburg and its satellites. Reporter: Have any specific projects been worked out? G.T.: A number of components of the Balt-Terminal have already been worked out. For example, the investment project of the Avtovo terminal makes it possible to evaluate the problem of the organisation of a multimodular transportation process at a junction of the sea port, the railroad and the city as a whole. As a result of this work we found ways to considerably increase the freight operation capacity of the railroad station ‘Avtovo’ and reduce transport tension in some parts of the city. Without this the relations between the city and the port, where a terminal for 150 000 containers is being completed, are likely to be strained. Reporter: Does the Balt- terminal involve the development of the railroad? A.K.: By all means. Lengiprotrans which designs and scientifically and technically estimates the further development of the October Railroad works in close connection with Transcom. By the way, within the joint program we’ve got the land for expanding the biggest terminal of the junction — the Shushary terminal. It is situated near the railroad station of the same name which possesses a large lorry fleet. The October railroad is helping to bring to life the project of the development of the terminal. Traffic streams going southwards, mainly to Moscow and Kiev move to Shushary and the task is to divert the arriving containers to the railroad and to deliver them to their destination while keeping them off St.Petersburg thoroughfares. The same operation is planned in the other direction. Reporter: And what is planned for the Northern direction? V.C.: The Committee for Town-planning and architecture is working on the placing of a new terminal near Ruchie railroad station. Freight from Murmansk, Karelia and partly from Finland will be arriving there. Reporter: A lot of motor transport container carriers come through Vyborg... . V.K.: And approximately a quarter of them go in transit through St.Petersburg. They go through Parnas station with a large terminal complex and a hotel for drivers. So far, unfortunately , it has not been fully used but we are planning to settle this problem. Reporter: Foreign investors know where to invest money to get profit. How profitable will participation in the construction of the transportation multimodular complex be? V.K.: The commercial prospects and financial efficiency of the Balt-Terminal complex as well as of separate terminals have been accurately estimated. The existence of modern automatic terminals with a customs room united by the logistical system in St.Petersburg transportation junction guarantees both a multi-modular process and high financial profitability with the free way of its administration. The estimation shows that taking one dollar out of returns from each ton of freight operations due only to rational use of 5% of freight turnover served by the Balt-Terminal system of the St.Petersburg junction will bring 7 or 8 million dollars into the city budget within one year. So, the direct participation in this project and outside investments from both Russian and foreign partners will increase the volume of transportation and advance the receiving of dividends by all the participants of the construction of the complex. I’ll add that the project will provide returns in 2 or 3 years. Today we can offer a data base on the transportation in the St.Petersburg junction and the North-West of the Russian Federation; materials on construction of terminals with logistical centres in the vicinity of the railroad stations of Avtovo, Shushary and Ruchie and the working projects of a flyover road with an underpass in Stacheck prospect near Avtovo metro station. Y Victor Yurasov
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