Severomuysk

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Severomuysk (Russian: Северому́йск; Buryat: Хойто-Муяын, Khoyto-Muyayn) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Muysky District of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located about 90 kilometers (56 mi) southwest of the urban-type settlement of Taksimo, the administrative center of the district. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 2,198. Severomuysk lies directly adjacent to the eastern portal of the Severomuysky rail tunnel, in the valley of the Muyakan River [ru], a left-hand tributary of the Muya River. The valley is bounded to the north by the Severomuysky Range, which is part of the greater Stanovoy Range.
It was founded in the mid-1970s, as part of the construction of the 15-kilometer (9.3 mi) long Severomuysky Tunnel on the Baikal–Amur Mainline (BAM). It was granted urban-type settlement status in 1977. As the construction of the tunnel turned out to be more difficult than anticipated, construction was prolonged over twenty years and Severomuysk remained the logistical center for tunnel construction works for far longer than originally intended. With the economic downturn of the 1990s and the completion of the tunnel in 2003, the settlement lost over two thirds of its population.