The Ovoot-Erdenet railroad line is currently under construction in Mongolia. This railroad line is one of the key sections of the so-called “Northern Railway Corridor” – a rail highway to connect Western Siberia with the PRC, the possibility of which is envisaged in the 2016 Russia-Mongolia-China Economic Corridor Project List. The length of the Ovoot-Erdenet line is 542 kilometers and the tracks run through areas with very difficult terrain and minimal power and road transport infrastructure. According to the feasibility study, this line’s throughput capacity is estimated at 22 million tons of freight per year, which is almost equal to the performance of a significant portion of the railway corridors serving freight traffic along the China-Europe route.

Further development plans for this project, available from the Mongolian Ministry of Roads and Transport Development, are closely aligned with the concept of the Northern Railway Corridor and envisage the creation of the Ovoot-Artssur line, which will bring the main line to Mongolia’s border with the Russian Federation, as well as connecting the project to Mongolia’s main railroad line, the Ulaanbaatar Railway.

The Mongolian authorities officially decided to start construction of the Ovoot-Erdenet section in 2017, shortly after the Northern Railway Corridor was included in the List of Projects of the Trilateral Economic Corridor. At this stage, the project was actively promoted by mining corporations, in particular, Australian Aspire Mining, which was interested in developing a large coal basin located in the north of Mongolia. Chinese investors, who were actively buying Mongolian coal, also had a certain interest. Just in the same years, the People’s Republic of China........

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