Mikhail Mishustin, Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, visited the FSUE “Rosmorport” stand on November 15 within the frames of the official tour of the XVII International Exhibition “Transport of Russia”. Sergey Pylin, General Director of the enterprise, presented to the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation an exposition shown at the stand. The exposition is dedicated to the FSUE “Rosmorport” main achievements and reported on work progress on the Volga-Caspian Sea Shipping Canal (VCSSC).

"By order of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, this year it is necessary to provide a 4.5 m draft. For this purpose, during the navigation of 2023, 18 dredgers were concentrated on the canal, including 7 vessels of the the FSUE “Rosmorport”'s own fleet, and up to 40 vessels of the auxiliary and support fleet. The volume of dredging at the end of the year will be more than 10 million cubic meters," Sergey Pylin said.

The General Director of FSUE “Rosmorport” explained that the volume of dredging averaged slightly more than 3 million cubic meters in previous years, and in 2022 – 5 million cubic meters. The main reason for the increase in the volume of extracted soil is the drop in the level of the Caspian Sea: over the past three years it has fallen by 20 cm per year.

Sergey Pylin stressed that the cost of dredging amounted to 4,160 million rubles, including 2,080 million rubles as subsidies from the federal budget, and 2,080 million rubles were own funds of FSUE “Rosmorport”.

“The cargo turnover of the ports of the Caspian basin increased in 9 months of 2023: in the Astrakhan seaport it amounted to 58 %, in the Olya seaport – 15 %, in the Makhachkala seaport – 18 % compared to the same period last year. The ship turnover of these ports increased by 87 % in 9 months compared to the result for the same period of 2022. In accordance with the instruction of the President, a 4.5 m draft will be provided at the beginning of December this year,” Sergey Pylin stressed.

In order to reduce the drift in the marine part of the canal, FSUE “Rosmorport” is also implementing a project for the construction of protective structures with a total length of 7.5 km, which consist of three sections, and is building an unloading canal. Protective structures are geobags filled with soil extracted during dredging. They are laid on the brows of the canal to exclude reverse drift of the soil.

The implementation of large-scale work on development of VCSSC by FSUE “Rosmorport” became the main theme of the company's exposition at the “Transport of Russia” in 2023.On November 14- 16, when the event took part, participants and guests of the event could visit the FSUE “Rosmorport” stand and see a video dedicated to dredging on the canal, get acquainted with the scheme of dredging, models of high-performance vessels involved in the development of the canal: Artemiy Volynsky and Petr Sablin cutter-section dredgers, Kronshlot self-unloading dredger, Silnaya self-propelled hopper barge.

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The Volga-Caspian Sea shipping Canal is the most important central part of the international transport corridor “North–South”. The canal will provide cargo turnover between Russian ports and ports of the countries of the Caspian Basin and further in the southern direction.