At 101,613 km, the Russian Federation's inland waterways network is one of the largest in the world. It provides transportation amongst 68 regions of the Russian Federation. There are 48,100 km of waterways with guaranteed dimensions of channels, and 74,500 km of navigable channels.
The Unified Deep Water System of European Russia amounts to 6,500 km. In recent years it has supported trade with 44 countries. Some 15.2 million tons of goods and commodities have been exported using the deep-water system, and one million tons imported. Once Russia's inland waterways are opened to foreign vessels, it is planned to arrange cargo transportation and cruise navigation along the major European water-transport corridors. The main elements of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia include the Volga-Baltic waterway in the northwest as well as the Volga-Don navigation channel in the south. Cargo traffic increases and the tourist routes develop every year in both these areas.
The last few years have seen a significant increase in cargo and passenger traffic on internal waterways. In 2007, 152 million tons of cargo were transported, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. Meanwhile passenger traffic amounted to more than 21 million people, an increase of 9.2%. Cargo transshipment at river ports increased by 18%.
The increase in volume was largely due to favourable weather conditions, which extended the navigable period. Cargo traffic in particular was boosted by demand from oil and gas development projects and the construction of pipelines. At the same time, renovation of river fleet was lagging behind removal of obsolete vessels from service; shipping companies had to use all reserves of the river fleet.
One of the acute problems of the inland waterways is the condition of navigable hydro-engineering constructions. The majority of functioning hydro-engineering facilities on Russia's inland waterways have been in operation for 50-70 years, sometimes even longer. Inspection of hydro-engineering facilities revealed that as on January 1, 2008, only 20.9% of such constructions have a standard level of safety, 60.8% of them have a substandard level of safety, 14.2% have a low level of safety, and 4.1% - a dangerous level.
Operation of hydro-engineering facilities in poor technical condition may lead to industrial accidents.
The newly drafted subprogramme Inland Water Transport, included in the Federal Targeted Programme Development of Transport System of Russia in 2010-2015, envisages the following measures to promote the development of inland water transport:
- The development of modern and effective transport infrastructure to speed up cargo traffic and decrease transportation costs.
To achieve this aim it is necessary to remove bottlenecks that are currently limiting the throughput capacity of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia. The main measures include the construction of a low-pressure hydro-system on the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod and the construction of a second line of lock gates for the Nizhe-Svirsky hydro-system on the Volga-Baltic waterway.
- The increase of the competitiveness of the Russian water transport system, making use of the country's transit potential.
To this end it is necessary to develop port infrastructure on internationally important inland waterways. These include the construction of port terminals and other infrastructure facilities at the port of Azov and renovation of the transport fleet.
- The increase in the safety and stability of the transport system.
To achieve this it is necessary to ensure the safety of infrastructure facilities and navigation on inland waterways. This involves overall reconstruction of the hydro-engineering infrastructure and waterways of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia, Siberia and the Far East, renovation of the technical and patrol fleet, creation of an integrated communication network on inland waterways and provision of electronic navigation maps, as well as strengthening the material and technical resources of sectoral educational institutions for training and re-training personnel for future employment in the industry.
The implementation of the programme will reduce the sections that restrict the throughput capacity of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia from 4869 km to 889 km, or from 75% to 14% by the year 2015.
The share of navigable hydro-engineering constructions with low and dangerous levels of safety will be reduced from 14.2% to 9%, and from 4.1% to zero, respectively.
The length of moorage built at cargo terminals will be 450 meters.
The throughput capacity of river ports will be increased by 22 million tons.
Ninety-seven transport vessels, 352 technical vessels, and 72 patrol vessels will be built.
The entire inland waterway network will be provided with new generation communication systems by 2015.
All inland waterways of international importance will be provided with electronic navigation maps by 2015.
Total financing of the subprogramme is 206.3 billion roubles ($8.35 billion, or €5.74 billion), including 165 billion roubles from the federal budget and 41.3 billion roubles from non-budget funds.