Rosatom plans to organize a "sea train" on the Northern Sea Route

At the moment a number of companies discuss regular transportation on a strict schedule.

Rosatom plans to organize regular cabotage transportation along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) with the help of the Sevmorput nuclear-powered lighter carrier on a strict schedule. This was announced to TASS on Tuesday by Maxim Kulinko, deputy director of the Northern Sea Route Directorate of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.

“The tasks that the state sets us are to ensure the development of the Northern Sea Route as a full-fledged sea corridor that connects the Far East with the North-West of Russia. And in this part, the most important element for solving this problem is the transportation on a schedule. We can say that this is a "sea train", which we intend to launch starting next year," said Kulinko.

According to him, at the moment a number of companies discuss regular transportation on a strict schedule. “Taking into account those pilot voyages that were already performed by the nuclear-powered lighter-carrier Sevmorput in previous years, we see that fish products transported from the Far East to the North-West can be an anchor cargo. As for the return direction, we are ready to take both containerized and general cargo", - said the deputy director of the NSR directorate, adding that there is a demand even for non-standard cargo that can be used as supply for large investment projects.

Kulinko said that FSUE Atomflot has already completed additional equipment of the vessel to optimize transportation and increase the number of accommodated containers. The ability to connect 40-foot refrigerated containers (refrigerated containers equipped with a refrigeration unit are connected to stationary power points on ships and are used to transport temperature-sensitive goods) has been increased from 111 to 204. If necessary, it is possible to increase this number to 297. In case of loading only 204 refrigerated containers, one can additionally load 150 standard 20-foot containers. Only 20-foot container "Sevmorput" can accommodate 1328.

Source: TASS