Knee-deep rivers: Russia plans to increase water transportation volumes
The Ministry of Transport sees prospects and intends to develop river passenger and cargo transportation between Russian regions, Transport Minister Roman Starovoit said. According to him, this year freight transportation by river transport will not exceed 100 million tons, which is six times lower than in the USSR. How the authorities plan to increase the indicators and what directions are the most promising - in the material "Izvestia".
Rethinking strategies
In recent years, there has been a noticeable tendency to reduce the volume of transportation by inland water transport. Cargo flows are increasingly switched to road and rail transport, which creates additional loads on existing highways and railways, said Alexander Borodin, honorary transport worker of the Russian Federation, associate professor of the basic department of state and municipal property management at the Presidential Academy.
- This is especially relevant for the European part of Russia, where roads located parallel to inland waterways often operate in overload mode," the expert told Izvestia. - At the same time, the potential of inland water transport remains unused to the end. Today, there is a need to rethink the country's transportation strategy in general and with regard to inland waterways in particular.
The key tasks are to bring the infrastructure to the standard condition, construction of cargo and passenger fleet, construction of technical fleet, dredging.
- It is necessary to invest billions of dollars in the development of inland waterways and create conditions attractive for private investment," he said.
Dmitry Zemlyansky, Director of the Center for Spatial Analysis and Regional Diagnostics of IPEI of the Presidential Academy, is sure that restoration and development of river passenger and cargo transportation can become an important part of the strategy to remove transport restrictions within the country.
- This will allow to relieve at least some of the bottlenecks in the railroad and automobile infrastructure," he told Izvestia. - For example, it is possible to transfer to inland water transport a part of heavy bulk cargo transportation from road transport in periods when traffic on regional and federal roads is restricted (in particular, interregional transportation of construction materials in summer peak consumption seasons).
The main directions of river transport development are outlined within the framework of the approved Strategy for the Development of Inland Water Transport of the Russian Federation until 2030.
This document defines specific indicators of inland water transport development in the Russian Federation, such as the length of inland waterways with guaranteed dimensions of ship passages, the volume of cargo transshipment by Russian river ports, the total carrying capacity of the fleet, the average age of the fleet, the number of berths built (reconstructed) and others, Roman Khripunov, Senior Analyst of the Corporate Ratings Group of ACRA, reminded Izvestia.
- In order to achieve the targets for these indicators, the strategy has identified a number of key investment projects for the construction and reconstruction of river navigation infrastructure (construction of canals, locks, dams and other hydraulic structures), the financing of which is planned both from budgetary and non-budgetary sources," he emphasized. - In addition, the development and implementation of comprehensive measures to support the renewal of the river fleet is declared within the framework of this strategy. One of the key targets of the strategy was to increase the volume of cargo transportation by inland water transport up to 242 million tons by 2030.
Regional specifics
The key area is transportation in the Volga basin, an area with a dense network of major economic centers and extensive interregional links.
- The role of river passenger transportation can no longer be the same as in Soviet times. Still, the level of motorization has grown a lot, the network of roads in standard condition has grown, - explained Dmitry Zemlyansky. - According to Rosstat, in 2023 the volume of passenger transportation by inland water transport amounted to 10.6 million people. In the total structure of passenger transportation, river transport accounts for less than 0.1%. In addition, over the last 20 years, the number of passengers transported has decreased by 2.8 times (for example, in 2001, 30.0 million people were transported by inland waterways).
Nevertheless, there are areas where river passenger transportation is vital - in summer only air transportation is an alternative.
These are primarily remote areas in Siberia and the Far East, in the basins of the Yenisei, Lena and others.
- In the basins of the Volga, Oka, Don and Ob rivers passenger traffic should be developed primarily in the format of cruise tourism, - said the expert. - The deterrent to the active development of river transport in Russia is the high level of wear and tear of fixed assets. According to Rosstat, about half (45.3%) of passenger and cargo-passenger vessels are more than 30 years old, and 90% of the fleet of dry and liquid bulk carriers is over 30 years old. In addition, the number of both passenger and cargo berths has been decreasing in recent years (by 12% and 25% respectively), which also negatively affects the development of river and water transportation.
Additional costs
Artem Deev, Head of the Analytical Department at AMarkets, called the problem of transportation accessibility in the regions an urgent one.
- If river infrastructure is built in parallel with the construction of road infrastructure, it will significantly increase throughput capacity and in many ways reduce transportation and time costs. River transportation is also a powerful driver of tourism development," he told Izvestia.
The biggest problem is the shallowing of rivers inside cities. Where cargo and passenger transportation used to be developed (many hubs were purposefully built on the banks of the rivers, somewhere even the infrastructure has been preserved), it is impossible to walk because of the shallow depth.
- One of the most promising directions is the Oka River, which would connect the cities of Tula, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan regions and the Moscow region. Nevertheless, there are risks in such colossal work. First of all, financing: deepening works are needed on all sections of the track. With the current budget deficit, we have to rely only on federal subsidies - most likely, from the Federal National Welfare Fund," he said. - Secondly, control at the federal and local levels: lack of synchronization will jeopardize the entire project. Thirdly, the provision of cargo and passenger transportation itself. Is import substitution of ships working sufficiently in Russia?
In addition, according to him, there is an environmental problem. Large-scale works, on the one hand, require approvals and environmental monitoring (where ecosystems may be damaged), and on the other hand, imply additional expenses for cleaning and preparation for dredging.
"Izvestia sent an inquiry to the Ministry of Transport, but at the time of publication no response had been received.
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