Coal producer ELSI Group, a part of Russian investment conglomerate A-Property, is currently building Russia's first private railway line in east of the country. The goal is to facilitate coal shipments to the Asia-Pacific region. The new line, known as the Pacific Railway (TZhD), will connect the Elga coal mine with the Sea of Okhotsk in the Khabarovsk region, where a new port facility will also be built. The construction of the TZhD line was first announced in July 2021, with construction originally planned to start in 2022 in parallel with the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). After that, construction was supposed to last from 2023 to 2027 and the start of operations was planned for 2028. However, the investor has decided to speed up the process and open the railway line and the new port by 2026. So far, the investor has already built 200 km of the TZhD line. The project, which is fully financed with private funds, was initially estimated at €954 million (RUB 97.1 billion) but is currently at €1.44 billion.
