The much-lambasted paper mill accused of polluting the unique Lake Baikal in Siberia will close down by November, according to news reports citing the board of creditors of the flagging enterprise.
About 800 people will lose their jobs after the paper mill shuts down, Radio Liberty reported Thursday.
The authorities have so far failed to create enough replacement jobs in the town of Baikalsk, which hosts the mill, despite earlier promises to do so, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported.
The government plans to turn Baikalsk into a tourist zone, but named October as the earliest date for reviewing the plan to revamp the town's economy. The plan has an estimated price tag of 42 billion rubles ($1.3 billion); by comparison, the mill's debt that drew it into bankruptcy stood at under 3 billion rubles.
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