Cut the Gordian knot: Agryz can close freight flows of Zakamye
Tatarstan is going to make a new attempt to expand freight turnover through the Agryz railway station located at the intersection of 80 directions
“The Krugloye Pole railway station (subordinate to the Kuybyshev Railway, a branch of Russian Railways) is “suffocating” from the excess of freight coming from the industrial zone of Zakamye. Ammonium is building the second stage, and TANECO is forced to send trucks by road. At the same time, the Agryz railway station is underloaded,” explained head of the public council and Russian Railways veteran Alexander Lapshin at Municipal Hour meeting at the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency (TIDA) the need to change freight flows. To “unravel” the collapse, local authorities propose building a logistics hub in the village of Izh-Bobya, from where products can be sent to the Far East, the Baltic ports and Moscow. “But it won't be possible without the use of heavy artillery. If we need to come up with a legislative initiative, we are ready to support it,” promised Albert Khabibullin, Chairman of the Committee on State Construction of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan. Read more about it in the report of Realnoe Vremya.
Transfer cargo to the Izhevsk branch of Russian Railways
The authorities of the republic are going to return to solving the pressing problem of “unravelling” the congestion at the Krugloye Pole railway station, where industrial products from all over Zakamye accumulate before being sent for export. An alternative scheme has been prepared by the authorities of the Agryz area, historically closely connected with Russian Railways freight rail transportation.
They propose to transfer the multi-billion-dollar cargo flow from Krugloye Pole, located on the Kuibyshev railway line (a branch of Russian Railways), to the Agryz station (the Izhevsk line of the Gorky railway) and build a logistics hub of the same name in the village of Izh-Bobya nearby. At stake is the reception and dispatch of 5 thousand pairs of cars per day. The reason is the need to speed up the process of transshipment of products to export markets.
The concept of creating a logistics hub was presented by Chairman of the public council of Agryz, Alexander Lapshin, who has worked for Russian Railways for over 40 years. According to him, the Krugloye Pole — Bugulma railway line, where industrial products from Zakamye flow, poorly copes with its transshipment. Due to the congestion of the tracks, there are delivery delays, the rhythm is disrupted, and supply chains are often interrupted. It is proposed to move the freight receiving and dispatching centre to Agryz to relieve the congestion at Krugloye Pole.
Agryz marshalling yard for 80 directions
“The Krugloye Pole station is suffocating, as is the intermediate Tikhonovo station,” said Lapshin. “Agryz is one of the 13 largest marshalling yards, but its potential is poorly utilized. The design capacity of the Agryz marshalling yard is 5,000 cars per day, 2,700 cars are processed per day. There are enough reserves to accept freight flows from Zakamye.”
According to him, the Krugloye Pole marshalling yard in Nizhnekamsk processes 1,200-1,300 cars per day, which can be used to load Agryz.
The additional section of the route for shippers will be 129 km (this is the distance from Krugloe Pole station to Agryz station). But this is a trifle compared to the geographical advantages. According to Alexander Lapshin, Agryz is located at the intersection of 80 routes in different directions, including the Far East, the Baltic ports, Moscow.
In contrast, the Krugloye Pole station has access to only 23 routes, and further development is associated with urban planning restrictions. In fact, he proposed to correct the error and move the “collection point” of goods. Why did this happen?
“When they built the railway tracks around Alabuga, they worked with the Kuibyshev road,” he explained.
Although the Bugulma — Agryz railway section is continuous, but legally the boundaries between the branches run through the Alnashi station.
Minus — single-track tracks
True, this scheme has a minus. The entire 129 km railway section is built on a single-track track, the latitudinal routes are double-track. “Here we need to build either double-track railways, but this option is unlikely. Today, the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline is at a standstill, and the Trans-Siberian Railway is not finished,” noted Alexander Lapshin. In other words, Russian Railways will not allocate funds. Instead, it is proposed to build a satellite station near Agryz and form trains there to relieve the load on Krugloye Pole.
The scheme is proposed to be implemented on the following terms: the state builds the tracks, and investors build a logistics centre for the transportation of containers and the formation of additional trains through investment projects. “This is long overdue. TANECO and Ammonium are suffocating. Some cargo is transported a thousand kilometres in trucks,” concluded the chairman of the public council of Agryz.
In addition, Agryz proposes to transfer a locomotive repair station from Kazan's Yudino. “Yudino specializes in the repair of D-100 diesel engines. But today, new locomotives use improved a new engine, less labour-intensive to operate. Agryz specializes in repairing them,” the speaker said, making it clear that the transfer process is inevitable.
Agryz’s proposals have been submitted to the Ministry of Transport and Road Facilities of the Republic of Tatarstan for economic calculations, Lapshin said.
We’ll have to bring in the “heavy artillery”
The bold idea was appreciated by head of the Committee on State Construction of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Albert Khabibullin, who was invited to the “Municipal Hour” at TIDA. According to him, similar proposals had been discussed before, but “the project comes down to taking a thousand kilometres away from someone.” “We need to bring in the heavy artillery and enter into intergovernmental agreements, since this is a strategic facility,” he noted.
On the other hand, there is an opportunity to come up with a legislative initiative at the federal level; the State Council has such a right. “We are ready,” Khabibullin promised.
Head of TIDA Taliya Minullina recalled the upcoming KazanForum summit, dedicated to the development of logistics transport corridors. “It makes sense to present the capabilities of our republic to enter global flows," she added.
Touching upon pressing issues, head of the Agryz district Lenar Nurgayanov reported on the dynamic development of livestock farming. In August, construction of a complex for 18 thousand heads of cattle worth 6 billion rubles will begin here. The investor was the Izhevsk company Sobin Agro Agryz.
Another Izhevsk agroinvestor is negotiating a preferential loan of 500 million rubles. “The documents are under consideration by Minister Oksana Lut,” the head of the district said.
For the arrival of investors, the authorities are ready to provide electricity at a price of 4-5 rubles per 1 kW h, Lenar Nurgayanov added. And for entrepreneurs, the Agryz industrial park will soon be launched with preferential tax conditions and preferences.