Attending the meeting of the Rosmorrechflot Council were Presidential Advisor Igor Levitin, Deputy Minister of Transport Viktor Olersky, heads of organisations subordinated to the Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (Rosmorrechflot), commercial companies, as well as representatives of public organisations and associations of sea and river transport.
The participants were given information about the drafting of the standard Ministry of Transport and Rosmorrechflot action plan for 2013-2018. The final ministerial action plan singles out 10 key objectives, including two Rosmorrechflot objectives, that of increasing the capacity of Russian sea ports and improving the quality of inland waterways. The Rosmorrechflot action plan also sets out 10 key measures which will facilitate the implementation of various tasks assigned to the agency up to 2018.
The meeting analysed information about the 2013 inland navigation season. As of January 1, 2013, Russia’s inland waterways totaled 101,663.8 kilometres in length. The total length of inland waterways with standard guaranteed shipping lanes increased by 484 km to 48,872.4 km. Navigation buoys were installed along waterways measuring about 15,000 km in length between one and 22 days ahead of schedule. At the same time, persisting ice formations made it impossible to launch the navigation season as planned. Navigation in the Sea of Azov- Don River basin and the Volga-Don river basins started ahead of schedule, on March 26.
During the first five months of 2013, inland water transport carried 22.2 million tonnes of freight, a 2.1% reduction on 2012 levels. At the same time, 12.7 million tonnes, a fall of 11.7%, have been delivered along inland waterways since the start of the 2013 navigation season; 9.5 million tonnes were delivered abroad, a 14.8% increase, and cargo turnover reached 19.3 billion tonne-kilometres, a 13.7% increase on 2012 levels. In the first five months of 2013, 1.9 million tonnes of freight were delivered to Arctic regions and areas with the same status, which is 80.1% compared to the same period in 2012.
In the first five months of 2013, passenger traffic decreased by 6.4% compared to the same period in 2012, totaling 2.1 million people. In the first five months of 2013, the passenger traffic of Russian river transport companies came to 65.97 million passenger kilometres, which is 60% higher compared to the same period in 2012 (41.23 million passenger kilometres). This is as the result of high demand for cruise liner travel in 2013.
Source: Ministry of Transport
