Optic fiber comm line to link Sakhalin isle and mainland.

VLADIVOSTOK, June 14 (Itar-Tass) - The laying of a new optical fiber
communication trunkline has been started on the Sakhalin Island.
The 700-km line will link the island region and the mainland. Four
hundred and sixty kilometres of the line will run across Khabarovsk
Territory, eight kilometres via the seabed of the Nevelskoy Strait from
Cape Lazarev to Cape Pogibi in sakhalin's north-west and 230-240 km across
the island proper, an official in the press servive of the Rostelecom-Far
East Company told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Nineteen kilometres of the optic fiber cable have been already laid
from Cape Pogibi into the island's hinterland in the direction of Nysh
Village.
The building work is being done in very complex conditions of marshy
ground. Builders have encountered an unexpected problem: the buiding
operations have attracted bears that regularly roam the construction sites.
The Company official pointedout, "The putting into operation of the
optic fiber communication trunkline linking Sakhalin and the mainland will
enable the Rostelecom to have its own resources to provide the population
and enterprises of the Sakhalin Region with qualitative communication up
to a new up-to-date digital level".