A new highway stretching 1250 miles through Russia to connect China with mainland Europe has been given the green light.
The Meridian Highway is a new commercial route that will connect Europe with Central Asia. Stock image by Getty
It won’t be the world’s most leisurely road trip but the new Meridian Highway will provide a sort of modern-day, Marco Polo-style adventure behind the wheel. Cutting through dramatic destinations and scenery, from high-altitude landscapes and windswept steppes to rolling summer pastures, the route will stretch almost 1250 miles (2000km) to improve access to Central Asia from Europe by car and serve primarily as a new trade corridor between the two regions.
Running westward from Russia’s border with Belarus to the border with Kazakhstan, the four-lane Meridian Highway will improve connectivity between these countries, as well as central Asian republics like Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Ultimately the route will form part of a more ambitious and expansive network, the Russia-Western China Highway, that connects Hamburg in Germany with Shanghai.
The route will make it easier for visitors from Europe to visit central Asian republics like Kyrgyzstan. Image: Shutterstock
The Meridian Highway portion of the network has just been given the go-ahead by Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, according to Russia Today. Construction will soon get underway and there are plans to revive some periphery towns in deprived areas along the route into tourist resorts and logistics hubs. The project is still way off completion though with an estimated timeline of between 12 and 14 years.
The new route comes as China attempts to revive the ancient Silk Road (the road that enabled Marco Polo to make his famous 24-year round-trip to China) with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The project, launched by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013, oversees the development of road networks, railways, pipelines, ports and ferry routes, in over 152 countries across Europe and Asia.
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