ASTRAKHAN, November 7. /TASS/. Russia’s first ocean cruise liner under construction at the Lotus Shipyard in Astrakhan will be ready for water trials in 2019, President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) Alexey Rakhmanov told reporters on Wednesday.
The keel of the project PV300 cruise ship with the capacity of 300 passengers was laid down at the Lotus Shipyard in August 2016. The four-deck liner will correspond to a five-star hotel. Russia did not build vessels of such class for more than 60 years.
"We are finalizing hull forming for the PV300 project, started loading large-size equipment and hope that tests of this vessel will start in 2019. Then, since this is the piloted ship, we would like very much to have no delays during trials," Rakhmanov said, without specifying deadline for the vessel turnover to customers.
The Astrakhan-based shipyard will enter in mid-2019 "the active phase of building two Golden Ring class passenger ships" [designed for river cruises], the top manager added.
The Lotus Shipyard affiliated with USC is one of the largest shipbuilding companies in southern Russia and specializes in constructing hulls for vessels of different types.