Director of the FSUE "Rosmorport" Astrakhan branch Aleksei Svyatsky took part in the meeting of the Council for Maritime Activities under the Governor of the Astrakhan Region, which took place on December 3, 2020 in Astrakhan.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia Yuri Tsvetkov, Minister of Industry, Transport and Natural Resources of the Astrakhan Region Denis Afanasyev, representatives of other organizations and state control and supervisory bodies - members of the council.

The participants of the meeting considered the state and prospects for the development of container service in the Caspian Sea and the creation of a special port economic zone in the region, the development of the international transport corridor "North-South", measures of the concept prepared by the Ministry of Transport of Russia and Rosmorrechflot of the national project "Inland water transport".

Particular attention during the meeting was paid to the technical condition of the Volga-Caspian Sea Navigation Canal (VCSNC). It was proposed to include in the concept being formed the issue of a comprehensive reconstruction of the VCSNC in order to ensure a passage draft of up to 4.5 m and two-way traffic of vessels.

The director of the Astrakhan branch, Aleksei Svyatsky, in his report spoke about the dredging works carried out in 2020 in the water area of the Volga-Caspian sea shipping channel and about plans for 2021. In 2020, the Astrakhan branch recovered 3.5 million cubic meters of soil as part of repair dredging works. A volume of 3.9 million cubic meters of soil is planned for 2021.

Also, in the report of the director of the Astrakhan branch, the issue of the negative impact of lowering the level of the Caspian Sea on the drift of the VCSNC and the redistribution of water flow was raised, as a result of which the fish-passage canals adjacent to the VCSNC became shallow and did not perform the function of water outflow and fish passage. FSUE "Rosmorport" proposed to consider the issue of bringing fish passage canals into working condition by attracting specialized equipment for the development of small rivers.

In addition, Aleksei Svyatsky spoke about the replenishment of the branch's dredging fleet in 2020 with new vessels - the Severo-Zapadny-503 multi-scoop dredger and the SSh-74, Bolgradskaya and Azovskaya self-propelled scows.