Mishustin instructed to work out the construction of ice-class ships for the Northern Sea Route

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin instructed to work out the possibilities of building ice-class ships for the Northern Sea Route (Northern Sea Route, NSR) by December, and by November – additional state support measures for it. About it reported press service of the government of the Russian Federation.

“Until December 1, together with the state corporation”Rosatom“He (the Ministry of Industry and Trade) must submit to the government proposals for the construction of ice-class ships for the Northern Sea Route, and by November 1, together with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development, work out additional state support measures for the construction, as well as the acquisition of such ships,” the message says.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance must also prepare rules for allocating subsidies to shipbuilders for the construction of civil ships by the end of November. During July, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Rosatom must agree on a roadmap for the design of a Russian ice-class gas carrier and a lead ship. The document worked out together with Zvezda, Novatek and Sovcomflot should contain an indication of the timing, cost, and sources of financing for the project.

A separate instruction was given to these departments to develop state support measures “providing an acceptable tariff for icebreaking services for Arctic projects” for the construction of four non-nuclear icebreakers for operation in the NSR.

The Ministry of Finance was separately instructed, when drafting a new three-year budget, to ensure the development of financing for the completion of the construction of ships and bases of the rescue fleet, the design of supply vessels for northern delivery, the provision of a state environmental monitoring system in the NSR water area, etc.

According to the development plan for the NSR, by 2030 the nuclear icebreaker fleet will include seven universal nuclear icebreakers of project 22220 (three of the seven were built: Arktika, Sibir and Ural), one nuclear icebreaker of project 10521 “50 Years of Victory “(introduced in 2007), one lead nuclear icebreaker “Russia” of project 10510 and four non-nuclear icebreakers, wrote formerly Vedomosti. Now more than 40 icebreakers are operated in Russia.

In early June, Mishustin said that the development of the NSR is important for increasing the transport connectivity of the most inaccessible territories of Russia and the implementation of large-scale projects that will additionally bring about 20 trillion rubles to the budget.

Northern Sea Route with a length of 5600 km runs from Murmansk to Vladivostok along the Russian coast of the seas of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. Navigation in the eastern sector of the Northern Sea Route (from Taimyr to the Bering Strait) is impossible in winter without icebreaking assistance, the ice thickness there reaches 3 m. In 2021, the cargo traffic on the NSR amounted to 34.9 million tons. up to 1627 per year, and cargo traffic increased by 11%. In 2022, 34 million tons of cargo were transported along the NSR.