Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor to drive development in involved territories

PETROZAVODSK, June 3. /TASS/. Resolving issues related to implementation of the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor project will become a major driver for development of involved territories, Director of the Center for Arctic Research and Projects at the Northwestern Institute of Management (the Russian Academy of Sciences) Alexander Sergunin told TASS.

The Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor (TATC) is a route to connect Russia's eastern and western parts, ports of St. Petersburg and Vladivostok, through northern seas, ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. It will connect the world's industrial, agricultural, energy centers and consumer markets with a short, safe and economically effective route. The project is an evolution of the Great Northern Sea Route project, implemented under the Effective Transport System national project.

"The Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor's development will help create new production facilities and new jobs in the future. It will be necessary to create new settlements along the TATC route. This is a serious driver for the development of the entire macroregion, as various related issues will be addressed during the project's implementation," the expert told TASS.

The Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor's sea part is about 14,000 km, and about 10,000 km are land infrastructures, including railways and highways, as well as inland waterways. The cargo traffic by 2030 is expected to be 109 million tons due to the "Northern Supplies" project (transportation of life-support goods to the North), export of hydrocarbons and minerals, and transit cargo. The route's development will be comprehensive, and the plan is to have year-round navigation due to development of a nuclear icebreaking fleet, a fundamental upgrade of port infrastructures, and attention to the environment.

The scientist continued by saying that the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor is a strategic project that will expand the Northern Sea Route and will also create a multimodal transport corridor from the Baltic region to the Pacific Ocean. Its implementation will give an impetus to the upgrade of port infrastructures, especially of outdated facilities on the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone's coast that have existed since Soviet times. Another area is to develop a modern ice-class fleet, primarily gas carriers to serve the Arctic LNG-2 project. Taking into account the multimodality, the river fleet also requires an upgrade. According to the expert, some of these issues have been addressed already.

"This is a huge infrastructure tangle. Since ports are being upgraded, it is necessary to create comfortable living conditions for the people who will work there. The traffic development will require new search and rescue centers. Plus, it is also necessary to develop communications for navigation in the Northern Sea Route's eastern part," he added.

Legal and management issues

The expert doubted dividing the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor into separate sections with separate operators could be advisable, as there needs to be a unified operator. He mentioned Glavsevmorput (a division of Rosatom) - the operator that manages the Northern Sea Route. Another aspect is a necessary unified legal framework, since the corridor unites sections with different international legal statuses.

"First of all, there should be a certain organizational structure - the one that will be responsible for the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor, for all issues related to its development. That fairly diverse marine area has different legal statuses," he said.

The scientist pointed to necessary significant adjustments of this country's Transport Strategy and other strategic documents on development of the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone. For example, the new Arctic development strategy should specify the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor instead of the Northern Sea Route. In addition to that, the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor should be connected to emerging transport corridors, including the international North-South transport corridor.