Mechel is going to sell railway from Elga to the Baikal-Amur Mainline

As the Kommersant has got to know, Mechel allocates railway from the Elga coal deposit to the Baikal-Amur Mainline, the construction of which cost it about 70 billion rubles, in a new structure Elga-Road. The company doesn’t leave hopes to reduce the debt through the sale of the railway to Russian Railways, besides the allocation of the railway beyond the perimeter of the Elga project will help it to attract relevant investors. However, at first, share in the Elga project and the railway will be controlled by Gazprombank.

According to the data of the Uniform State Register of Legal Entities and Kartoteka.ru, on January 13, Yakutugol and Neryungrinskaya motor depot, included in Mechel, established Elga-Road (99% of the shares belong to Yakutugol). It is expected to transfer the railway Ulak - Elga (321 km), connecting the Elga coal deposit with the Baikal-Amur Mainline to the new company, sources, familiar with the situation, told the Kommersant. Now the ralway, as well as a license for Elga (reserves of which make up more than 2 billion tons of coking coal) belong to Elgaugol (99.99% are owned by Yakutugol). One of the Kommersant’s sources says that the main purpose of the railway allocation is its subsequent sale, and the company relies on Russian Railways. According to another source, before this the railway will be pledged to Gazprombank (the company's largest creditor, the debt is $1.8 billion).