Bering Strait Crossing - The TKM-World Link

The TKM-World Link

The TKM-World Link also called ICL-World Link (Intercontinental link) is a planned link between Siberia and Alaska providing oil, natural gas, electricity, and railroad passengers to the United States from Russia. The plan includes provisions to build a 103-kilometre (64 mi) road and electrified high-speed rail tunnel under the Bering Strait which, if completed, would become the longest tunnel in the world. The tunnel would be part of a railway joining Yakutsk, the capital of the Russian Yakutia republic, and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in the Russian far east, with the western coast of Alaska.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin approved a plan to build a railroad to the Bering Strait area, as a part of the development plan to run until 2030. The more than 100-kilometre (60 mi) tunnel would run under the Bering Strait between Chukotka, in the Russian far east, and Alaska.

A cost estimate was US$66 billion. The plan involves creating a 6,000-kilometre (3,700 mi) route through Siberia to facilitate economic ties to the USA. A pipeline would be created to transport natural gas and oil from Siberia.

As of 2011, the railway Amur Yakutsk Mainline connecting Yakutsk (2,800 km or 1,700 mi from the strait) with the main rail network is under active construction; the estimated completion date is 2013.

In late August 2011, at a conference in Yakutsk in eastern Russia, the plan was backed by some of President Dmitry Medvedev's top officials, including Aleksandr Levinthal, the deputy federal representative for the Russian Far East. It would be a faster, safer, and cheaper way to move freight around the world than container ships, supporters of the idea believed. They estimated it could carry about 3% of global freight and make about US$7 billion a year. Shortly after, the Russian government approved the construction of the US$65 billion Siberia-Alaska rail and tunnel across the Bering Strait.