New bridge across river near Mongolian border built in Buryatia.

ULAN-UDE, December 10 (Itar-Tass) - A new bridge across the Dzhida
river near the border with Mongolia has been opened in Buryatia on
Thursday. The 295-meter-long bridge with two-kilometer long approach roads
is another connection used by traffic moving across the Mongolian state
border through the Zheltura border pass in the Dzhida region of Buryatia.
The new bridge replaced the old one that was in critical condition. The
overall construction costs totaled 200 million rubles, including 130
million rubles allocated from the federal budget.
The new overpass across the Dzhida River is of strategic importance to
Buryatia that is intensively developing trans-border contacts with
Mongolia, said President of Buryatia Vyacheslav Nagovitsin at a ceremony
of opening the bridge. The bridge will enable to build up imports of live
cattle from Buryatia, Nagovitsin said.
Cattle imports from Mongolia were resumed in the outgoing year after
a 20- year break. A first batch of cattle crossed the Russo-Mongolian
border through the Ainek Gol border pass that opened in the Zakamensky
district of Buryatia on November 18.
Buryatia will import at least 1,000 cattle before the year's end. In
2010 Buryatia is to import around 30,000 live cattle from Mongolia that
will be sent to the Zakamensky meat processing plant. Later, a channel of
regular imports of cheap meat from Mongolia to Russia with the annual
capacity of more than 340,000 cattle will be opened.
Mongolia with its livestock estimated at over 40 million cattle is
interested in cattle exports to Russia. Meat imports from Mongolia, where
cattle prices are lower than world prices, are of advantage to Russia as
well.
-0-ere/gor