In Europe, they again started talking about the construction of the longest underwater railway tunnel, which should pass from Helsinki to Tallinn along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Bloomberg reports.
The $ 17 billion megatunnel was actively talked about in 2019, although the idea has existed since the early 2000s. But after a year of discussions, the Estonian-Finnish project stalled due to Tallinn’s concerns about environmental and economic aspects of the construction, as well as due to safety concerns.
The construction was supposed to be carried out by the Finnish FinEst Bay Area, but Estonia was confused by the source of financing for the construction – China. The Chinese fund Touchstone Capital Partners agreed to fully cover the cost of the project. After the resignation of the last Estonian government, the new Cabinet, which is going to be formed in this country, wanted to resume negotiations with the Finnish side regarding the work on the tunnel.
According to the project, the length of the tunnel is about 100 kilometers, and the length of the object directly under water is from 50 to 56 kilometers. The project includes the construction of at least one artificial island.