On 21 October 2015 a meeting of the Presidium of the Marine Board under the Government of the Russian Federation was held in Moscow. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, President of the Marine Board under the Government of Russia Dmitry Rogozin. During the meeting General Director of FSUE “Rosmorport” Andrey Tarasenko made a report on the agenda issues.

The participants of the meeting discussed dredging progress at the Volga-Caspian Seaway Canal and the technical condition of the enterprise dredging fleet, as well as renewal opportunities.

The scope of dredging at the Volga-Caspian Seaway Canal in 2015 increased almost twice compared to the previous year, reaching almost 5 million cubic metres. As a result, it became possible to keep the current canal draught of 4.2 metres.

Nowadays the lowering of the Caspian Sea level together with unfavourable forecasts for the next year with the possible lowering of the measurement level of the canal sea part by 15-20 centimetres present one of the major challenges for navigation in this area. In this connection FSUE “Rosmorport” is going to boost dredging in the area up to 5.8 million cubic metres in 2016.

The enterprise is now working on extension of its fleet, in order to perform the important mission of maintaining depths at navigable canals and optimize its expenses. Four dredging vessels are now being constructed for FSUE “Rosmorport”. Next year construction of a pipe-line dredger and a support boat is going to start.

It shall be mentioned that the technical characteristics of dredging vessels allow to conduct dredging with full compliance to the requirements of environmental legislation and to the project documentation, which was approved by the government environmental-impact assessment. In order to compensate for the damage to water biological resources during maintenance dredging, FSUE “Rosmorport” is growing young fishes.