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Cargo shipping via Northern Sea Route to reach 100 mln tonnes by 2030

The Northern Sea Route is the shipping route and the main sea line in the Russian Arctic sector

MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. The volume of cargo shipping along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is expected to increase to 100 mln tonnes by 2030, head of the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East, Alexei Chekunkov said on Wednesday.

"Last year, we registered a historic record in the volume of traffic along the Northern Sea Route - we transported almost 33 mln tonnes. <...> Today the goal is to reach an astonishing volume of 100 mln tonnes by 2030. I think this is realistic," the minister said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

Earlier, Olga Smirnova, adviser to the Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, stated that the NSR would be a more environmentally friendly route than transport routes located to the south, since Russia prioritizes the environmental safety of cargo transportation in the development of the Arctic route and focuses on ships using appropriate types of fuel.

The Northern Sea Route is the shipping route and the main sea line in the Russian Arctic sector. It stretches along northern coasts of Russia across the seas of the Arctic Ocean (Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Bering seas). The route consolidates European and Far Eastern ports of Russia and navigable river mouths in Siberia in a single transport system. The route length is 5,600 km from the Kara Strait to the Providence Bay.

Russia’s nuclear corporation Rosatom acts as a supervisor of the Northern Sea Route Federal Project. Its goal is to develop the Route and increase its freight turnover to 80 mln tonnes in 2024.

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