KASPIYSK, June 8. /TASS/. The Kaspiy facility will be able to accommodate over 50 Caspian Flotilla ships and vessels after the naval infrastructure is upgraded, Head of the Navy’s Construction Department Aleksander Ovcharenko reported to Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu on Tuesday.

During his working trip to the troops of the Southern Military District, the Russian defense chief inspected the Kaspiysk base of surface ships. "The facility’s capacity makes it possible to accommodate 54 ships and vessels," Ovcharenko reported.

By the end of the year, the naval facility will have a berth space of over 1,200 meters, the Navy construction chief said. "At the end of next year, it will expand to 2,680 meters," he stressed.

By now, the northern and southern piers have been built to form a protected water area, he said.

The decision on improving the Caspian Flotilla’s infrastructure was made at the Russian Defense Ministry’s board meeting in August 2017. The cities of Kaspiysk and Makhachkala in Dagestan are becoming the basic ports for the Caspian Flotilla.

Before 2019, most of the Caspian Flotilla’s units were stationed in Astrakhan, a less advantageous geographic location from a strategic point of view. The warships’ deployment to the sea from the Astrakhan base was hampered by the freezing Volga waterway in winter and shallow waters. Now the Flotilla’s warships are stationed at new naval facilities.