New port for Murmansk
Construction of a new deep water port is to commence in Murmansk within several months. This new deep sea hub in the Kola Bay is supposed to handle containers, oil cargo, coal and mineral fertilizers all round the year. Experts say, annual throughput of Murmansk transport hub is to make 28.5 million tonnes by 2010 and 52 million tonnes by 2020.
Master plan
“I think the Ministry of Transport and relating agencies will start work on designing and construction of a new deep water ocean port in Murmansk in the nearest months,” RF Vice-PM Sergei Ivanov said in a government session last week.
As PortNews IAA learnt from Sergei Semenov, Development Director of R&D enterprise Morskoje Stroitelstvo i Tekhnologii (Maritime Construction and Technologies, St. Petersburg), upon development of the master plan for Murmansk port construction prepared by LenMorNiiProekt OJSC and subsequent decision as regards allocations for feasibility study by RosTransModernizatsia FSUE, the development of master plan involved a contractor Osobyje Ekonomicheskije Zony OJSC (Special Economic Zones) and a number of sub-contractors: Strategika LLC, Lengiprotrans OJSC and Maritime Construction and Technologies LLC.
PortNews IAA also learnt from the chief project engineer Mikhail Mukhin (LenMorNiiProekt OJSC), the plan developed by LenMorNiiProekt envisages reconstruction of the existing port complex and construction of the new port facilities. For that moment the master plan did not envisage throughput increase for the existing port. The plan envisaged transshipment of dry bulk and liquid bulk cargo.
According to Mukhin, infrastructure development implies minimal load on highway network as the highway transports little cargo. “Motor transport carries mostly inter-regional cargo,” Mukhin said. «Those are mostly fish and refrigerated cargo making no significant load on highway network”.
Sea hub
As of today, the master plan for the development of Murmansk transport hub (MTH) envisages construction of a deep sea hub for round-the-year handling of containers, oil, coal and mineral fertilizers. Transport hub will be integrated into an international North-South transport corridor. The MTH will comprise container and distribution terminals, logistics center, highways and railways to port facilities on the Eastern side of the KolaBay as well as Vykhodnoi-Lavna railway. The master plan also envisages reconstruction of the existing port complex as well as construction of new port facilities. On the Western side of the Kola Bay it is planned to build a new port which is to handle coal and oil.
“General cargo and containers will stay on the Eastern side,” Vladimir Ponomarev, deputy Director General of Murmansk Commercial Seaport OJSC told PortNews IAA. “I hope the existing volumes and range of cargo will be preserved by the port before the new one is put into operation”. Ponomarev also supposed the increase of containerized cargo under the new master plan. “Well, there will be not a new port but specialized terminals within the limits of the existing port of Murmansk”, he said. Experts say, the port currently handles all the provided volumes of cargo. The share of export-import containers in total volume is not large with the majority of containers come from Dudinka port.
Throughput increase considerably depends on reconstruction of Murmansk railway station today. As Ponomarev said, the terms for construction of a station for unloading of wagons with conveyor system will be considered in the nearest future. The construction of such a station could mark the beginning for creation of a principally new hub. The project is valued at almost RUR 2 million. The work is to be completed in 2010. Handling of railway cars at the new station is supposed to ensure their security and to cut unloading time thus raising the port’s throughput. Within the framework of the projects geological and geodesic research is to be carried out at the future construction site within the nearest months. The federal budget allocates RUR 300 mln for that purpose while all design works are valued at RUR 900 million.