Russian Railways, the national rail operator, is seeking much bigger investment into the upgrade of the BAM and Transsib Railways, says Vedomosti.

      According to the business daily, Vladimir Yakunin’s corporation has requested 1.2 trillion roubles, twice as much as the initial estimate. Russian Railways has reportedly blamed the surge in costs on additional freight volumes that were originally unaccounted for. Transportation of coal is expected to rise significantly by 2020, Vedomosti quotes the company’s presentation by a subsidiary think-tank.

      It says that the initial blueprint accounts for westbound deliveries from the Far East while there would be an increase in eastbound deliveries from the Kuzbass area, driven by larger coal production by SUEK (Siberian Coal Energy Company), Mechel and SDS-Coal.

      The Economic Development Ministry and the Ministry of Transport have not commented on the report yet.

      Earlier, Russia-IC reported that the decision to investment into the large-scale infrastructure project was announced by the Kremlin at the St Petersburg Economic Forum in 2013.

      Part of the state funding is expected to come from the National Welfare Fund.

      Russian Railways operates the second largest network in the world with 85,200 km of track and carries over 950 million passengers and 1.2 billion tonnes of freight annually across 11 time zones.

      With a staff of over 976,116 people, it is Russia’s fourth-largest company by revenue.