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The first stage of laying submarine fiber-optic line along the Northern Sea Route will be completed in 2022

The work is planned to be fully completed by 2026

ST. PETERSBURG, June 15 ./TASS/. The implementation of Polar Express project, which provides for the laying by 2026 of a transarctic main submarine fiber-optic communication line from Murmansk to Vladivostok, has not been stopped.

The first stage will end in the fourth quarter of 2022, said Andrey Kuropyatnikov, Morsviazsputnik General Director, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Wednesday.

Polar Express Project: the first section will be completed in the fourth quarter of this year - Teriberka - Anderma. The project has not been suspended, to date, more than 560 km have already been laid, if the distance from Teriberka to Anderma is a little more than 1 thousand km, then more than half of it has been covered for navigation last year.

Cable laying is done only in clean water, without ice, so we depend on seasonality, only in May the cable laying work continued to complete in the fourth quarter [of this year] and hand over our first section. The construction of a coastal station is being completed in Andrema, " said Kuropyatnikov.

The project of a transarctic underwater fiber optic communication line called "Polar Express" involves laying 12,650 km of cable from six pairs of optical fibers with a throughput of up to 104 TBps. The cost of the project is estimated at 65 billion rubles. A whole fleet of cable, supply and research vessels is used to lay the line. The project implementation period is 2026.

The shortest fiber optic line between Europe and Asia will become an alternative to satellite communications in the northern latitudes, will provide reliable and affordable communication and fast Internet in the Russian Arctic. The Polar Express is designed to provide a digital component of the development of the Northern Sea Route, its port infrastructure, as well as oil and gas and environmental projects in the Arctic. The project was announced at the Transport of Russia exhibition in November 2020, it is being implemented by order of the Ministry of Transport of Russia with the support of Rosmorrechflot, Rosmorport and Morsviazsputnik.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, organized by the Roscongress Foundation, is held from June 15 to 18. The theme of the forum in 2022: "A new world is new opportunities."