Transportation Minister Igor Levitin told the Moscow Times Sochi will be converted to a purely passenger port able to handle up to 715,000 passengers per year by 2015.

He added new highways to the port are being planned, and the government plans to spend 60 billion rubles ($2.35 billion) on building a new railway link to the port.

He said Sochi handled 88 million tons of cargo last year, but offered no comparative figures.

The Times said Thursday the government will remove a cargo terminal from the Sochi port to another location, but will arrange for the terminal to handle construction materials arriving for the building of Olympic facilities.