MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. The volume of cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route should exceed 40 million tons in 2025, First Deputy Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Gadzhimagomed Guseynov said.

"We transported almost 38 million tons last year. This year, the goal is to transport more than 40 million tons," he said during the round table "Legal and organizational regulation of the development of the Northern Sea Route."

According to him, over the past ten years, cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route has doubled.

"The volume of transportation along the Northern Sea Route will grow when we fully create the appropriate infrastructure. In this area we need to create it [the infrastructure] ahead of demand," he explained.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev reported that the cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route in 2024 amounted to 37.9 million tons, exceeding the previous record result by more than 1.6 million tons. In 2024, a record number of transit passages was made (92) setting a record for transit cargo (more than 3 million tons), which is almost one and a half times more than in 2023.

The Northern Sea Route is a 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 into a single transport system. The route’s length is 5,600 km from the Kara Strait to the Providence Bay.