December 30 2021

In Arkhangelsk there will be constructed ice-class vessels for passenger transportation.

The shipbuilders will start to work since the beginning of 2022.  As It is expected, the first two vessels for Arkhangelsk and Onega will enter service on municipal routes in the spring of 2024 after the closure of winter pedestrian ice tracks, the press-office of the government of the Arkhangelsk Region reported.

Passenger ice-class vessels will be able to transport residents of Arkhangelsk and Onega during the autumn ice freezing and spring ice floating.

Aleksandr Tsibulsky, the governor of the Arkhangelsk region, has noted in the social media: “We are moving on to the practical implementation of agreements, reached during a working trip to our region by the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Valentinovich Manturov, In September last year we were talking about renovation of water vessels in Arkhangelsk Region. Now all preparation procedures are completed, contracts for construction of four ice-class passenger vessels are signed. It is important, that they will be built in our region – thus, the serial construction of civil vessels will be resumed in the Arkhangelsk Region after several decades.”

The head of the region said further: two modifications of the vessel have been developed – with a passenger capacity of 65 and 100 people. The model has been tested in small-sized, solid and grated ice. Tests have shown that the class of ice reinforcement and engine power are suitable for operation in the waters of the seaports of Arkhangelsk and Onega during periods of ice freezing and ice floating.

«The shipbuilders will start to work since the beginning of the next year. We expect to begin transportation of passengers in the spring of 2024, – said Aleksandr Tsibulsky.

The project of the vessel is unique, it was developed by specialists of the Northern branch of the Russian River Register, taking into account modern requirements of comfort and safety, as well as climatic features of the region, and has no modern analogues in Russia. The new vessels will replace tugs that are not intended for passenger transportation, but have  been involved for decades in transporting residents of the island territories of Arkhangelsk and the left bank of the Onega lake during periods of ice freezing and flood floating.

To implement the project, a working group was organized with the participation of representatives of the Regional Ministry of Transport, the association “Cluster of Shipbuilding and Production of Marine Equipment in the Arkhangelsk Region”, supervisory authorities, classification societies, design, shipbuilding and transport enterprises.

The experts conducted a feasibility study, a study of water routes, determined the technical parameters of the vessel, and prepared a draft design. One of the prototypes for the future vessel was the tugboat “Nikolai Baskakov”, which is successfully operated on the inland waterways in the region. In addition, the appearance of the vessel resembles the symbols of the water passenger transportation in the “capital” of the Russian North – the motor ships “Balkhash” and “Kommunar”.

As it was reported earlier, in the autumn of 2020 the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov visited Arkhangelsk Region. At a meeting with the head of the region, the need to allocate funds for the construction of four vessels under the preferential leasing program of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia was discussed. Work on the project began in 2021. The vessel’s project was also examined by the Central Research and Design Institute of the Russian Merchant Fleet.

Source: Port News