MOSCOW, June 8. /TASS/. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) offers quicker shipment than the Suez Canal, but its drawback is that at most times of the year shipments require icebreakers' services, that add to the transit costs. However, there is no alternative to NSR in implementation of Russia's major Arctic projects, Prime Minister, President's Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev said on Wednesday.

"In the current conditions, the Northern Sea Route does not have an alternative in implementation of the major Russian Arctic projects," the envoy's press service quoted him as saying after a meeting on NSR development, which Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin chaired on Wednesday.

According to the plan to develop the Northern Sea Route to 2035, where the federal budget investments will make 600 billion rubles ($7.3 billion), tax payments to budgets of all levels will make 21 trillion rubles ($256 billion), he continued. The plan comprises 152 positions in five sections: the cargo base, transport infrastructures, cargo and icebreaking fleets, the navigation safety, as well as the management and development of navigation along the Northern Sea Route.

"The plan is of strategic importance, and its implementation will create a new global transport corridor, which is located fully within the Russian Federation's jurisdiction," the deputy prime minister said. "Presently, as the Eastern network of railroads is very busy, and given the sanctions by unfriendly countries, the importance of the Northern Sea Route is only growing."

The general financing of the plan will make 1.8 trillion rubles ($22 billion), where 0.6 trillion ($7.3 billion) will come from the federal budget.