Russia increases its ferry transportation capacity

Russia will increase the capacity of the Kavkaz railway and port by investing 118 million roubles in them in 2009. In 2008 it invested 218 million roubles for the same purpose.

These investments are designed to increase the turnover of the Kavkaz port and the railway specially built to service it. In 2008 the turnover of Kavkaz ferry railways was 2 million tonnes and by 2015 it will increase to 3 million tonnes.

Moscow plans to open two new ferry routes, to Bulgaria and Turkey. The Director General of the Anroskrim company, which runs the railways and port in Kavkaz, Oleg Shabanov, has stated that two ferry boats already function there, one transporting goods from Kavkaz to Crimea and the other goods from Armenia via the Georgian port of Poti.

Shabanov also mentioned that transport in the Crimean direction has decreased whereas that to Armenia via Poti has increased. For instance, turnover with Armenia in 2009 has already increased from 80,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes. The new Bulgarian route will have an annual cargo turnover of 2 million tonnes and the ferry to the Turkish port of Samsun will sail once a week with 40 containers containing 60 tonnes each.

The capacity of the ferries can be increased on demand. Russian newspaper Gudok states that Kavkaz port’s transportation capacity will double from 7.3 million tonnes to 14.76 million tonnes a year.