Russia To Award Icebreaker Ship Building Contracts To India

Indian media is reporting that two of the country’s shipyards will work on building four non-nuclear icebreaking ships for Rosatom, with the likely contact set to go to Gujarat shipyards – Indian Prime Minister Modi’s home region.

New Delhi is already considering one state-owned and one private shipbuilder for the plan, while reports state that discussions are currently being concluded by the Indian and Russian governments. The two sides are also discussing the possibility of engaging in shipbuilding and the repair of Russian vessels in India’s shipyards, as well as the training of Indian seafarers in Polar waters.

These discussions apparently took place during the first meeting of the Joint Working Group on Cooperation in the Northern Sea Route (NSR) between Russia and India. That took place in New Delhi on Thursday (October 10).

The Russian side, which included Government officials, visited the shipyards to assess their capabilities and infrastructure. Both sides are keen to finalize the issue quickly. India is a major buyer of Russian LNG from the Arctic Ocean Yamal Peninsula, but also wants to benefit from providing some of the delivery capabilities. Indian shipyards are the 12^th largest in the world, however the Indian government sees the development of its shipbuilding industry as key to economic development. To compete, it wants to be able to offer designs – such as icebreakers – that very few other shipyards can offer. On Russia’s side, the Russian shipping fleet has also been targeted for mass expansion with at least 400 commercial vessels to be constructed by 2030, in addition to numerous warships.

An Indian official was quoted as saying that “Russia is ready to do everything to get the icebreaker ships constructed in India, saying that if you make these ships for us, we will give you many more ship orders”, adding that Indian authorities had extended all possible help to local shipyards to execute the Rosatom order.

Vladimir Panov, Rosatom’s special representative for Arctic development, has said that India and Russia are currently “shifting from top-level contacts to actual workflows” related to cooperation on the Northern Sea Route (NSR), expressing hope that the parties “will complete them and move on to detailing this year.”

The NSR, which stretches the entire length of Russia’s Arctic and Far East regions, is expected to become a major trade route for goods shipped between Europe and Asia. It could drastically reduce transportation times compared to traditional pathways through the Suez or Panama canals.

Freight traffic via the route has been growing steadily. Russian authorities expect annual maritime cargo flows along the NSR to reach as much as 200 million tons by 2030. They plan to boost cargo throughput at northern seaports and to increase the size of the country’s Arctic fleet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously said that the development of the resource-rich Far East and the NSR are strategic priorities for the country. According to the head of state, Russia will ensure all-year navigation via the Arctic route.