OREANDA-NEWS Belarus has begun reconstruction of its part of the railway corridor in the direction of the ports of St. Petersburg, Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic Alexey Lyakhnovich said on the air of the state television channel Belarus 1 on Sunday.

"The most popular transport route remains the corridor towards the ports of St. Petersburg. (...) Because the distance is shorter. Accordingly, the cost of transportation is cheaper. Together with our Russian colleagues, we are working on the modernization of the railway corridor towards St. Petersburg so that we can also increase volumes in the coming years," the head of the Ministry of Transport said, noting that "Belarus, for its part, has already begun to modernize the railway corridor."

He added that "now Russian colleagues are doing the project on their territory and plan to start in March."

"This will increase cargo traffic. If this year we plan to transport 12.5-13 million tons of cargo by rail towards St. Petersburg, then this figure will increase in subsequent years," Lyakhnovich said.

The head of the Belarusian Ministry of Transport also said that in 2024 the reconstruction of the automobile corridor in the direction of St. Petersburg will be carried out. "This is our corridor that goes towards St. Petersburg, the P46 highway. There are two types of work here: reconstruction of the highway from Lepel to Polotsk, further to the border with the Russian Federation - major repairs," Lyakhnovich specified.

"By the end of 2023, Belarusian road freight carriers transported 16 million tons along this route. The task for this year is to transport 19 million tons. The volumes have been significantly increased, Alexey Lyakhnovich stressed," he said.