Novy Uoyan is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement

Urban-type settlement

Urban-type settlement ; , selyshche mis'koho typu ) is an official designation for a type of locality used in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union...

) in Severo-Baykalsky District

Severo-Baykalsky District

Severo-Baykalsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the twenty-one in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia. It is located at the northern tip of Lake Baikal. The area of the district is . Its administrative center is the urban locality of Nizhneangarsk...

 of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, located in the basin of the Upper Angara River, 550 kilometres (341.8 mi) from Ulan-Ude

Ulan-Ude

Ulan-Ude is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located about southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga...

 and 140 kilometres (87 mi) from Nizhneangarsk

Nizhneangarsk

Nizhneangarsk is an urban locality and the administrative center of Severo-Baykalsky District of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located at the northern tip of Lake Baikal, north of Severobaykalsk...

. Population:

History

It was founded in the mid-1970s in conjunction with the construction of the Baikal Amur Mainline, near the village of Uoyan on the left bank of the Upper Angara. The railway station and settlement were constructed by workers from the then Lithuanian SSR

Lithuanian SSR

The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...

, as sections of the track were given patronage of Komsomol

Komsomol

The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...

 brigades from various parts of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Urban-type settlement status was granted in 1976.

Regular traffic on the railway section between Severobaikalsk and Novaya Chara

Novaya Chara

Novaya Chara is an urban locality in Kalarsky District of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia. Population: -Geography:The settlement lies in the basin of the Chara River, in the eastern Stanovoy Range, approximately in a straight line northeast of the krai's administrative center of Chita, and from the...

 in northern Zabaykalsky Krai began in 1989. Completion of the BAM did not bring the expected economic development of the town and surrounding region, and with the economic crisis in the late 1980s, the town's population dropped from 9,547 in 1989 to 4,957 in 2002.

Economy and infrastructure

Novy Uoyan is an important station on the Baikal Amur Mainline, which presents the only real economic activity in the town. The BAM crosses the Upper Angara close to the town via a 350 metres (1,148.3 ft) long bridge.

There are proposals to build a 700 kilometre long connection between the BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway

Trans-Siberian Railway

The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...

 through Buryatia, with a northern teminus at Novy Uoyan, beginning either at Novoilyinsky, or from Mogzon

Mogzon, Khiloksky District, Zabaykalsky Krai

Mogzon is an urban locality in the eastern part of Khiloksky District of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located at the confluence of the Khila and Khilok Rivers. Population: Mogzon is a railway station of the Trans-Siberian Railway....

 in Zabaykalsky Krai. This section would be mainly intended to service mining developments, such as the lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 and zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

mine Ozyorninskoye, which could be reached from the south by 2012.