MOSCOW, May 05, 2:40 /ITAR-TASS/. A Chinese state-run building company and a private-owned investment fund may be invited to participate in constructing a transport corridor to Crimea across Kerch Strait while part of investments in the $1.2-3 billion project will be made in yuan, the newspaper Kommersant writes on Monday referring to sources close to the Russian Ministry of Transport and the Avtodor the state-run "Russian Automobile Roads" Company.

According to the newspaper, companies from the People's Republic of China will be the first foreign investors in the economy of Crimea following the latter's re-unification with Russia. The Transport Ministry is already preparing to conclude a memorandum with Chinese companies on the construction of the transport corridor (across the Kerch Strait) which will link Russia's Krasnodar Territory and Crimea.

An engineering design model has not been approved yet. The possibility of building an automobile-and-railway bridge or a bridge and an underwater tunnel is under consideration, in particular. The Transport Ministry is analysing how exactly the diagram will be implemented, whereas final decisions on parties to the project will be made after certainty emerges as to how precisely the transport corridor will be built, the newspaper's sources point out.