EXCLUSIVE: Russia to expand cooperation with India on dredging

Denis Manturov, Russian Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Industry and Trade, met with the heads of several Indian government agencies during his recent working trip to the Republic of India. 

Shipbuilding is among the most promising avenues for cooperation between Russia and India, particularly as regards engineering and construction of cargo and passenger vessels, according to TASS.

“We are looking at shipbuilding as a promising avenue for cooperation. What we have in mind is the engineering and joint construction of cargo and passenger ships and dredging machinery,” Manturov said.

Russia is ready to take a closer look at the Indian side’s interest in familiarizing [its shiping industry] with the competencies required for polar navigation, TASS reports.

Also, there is a considerable upside in carrying out joint work on creating Arctic class research vessels and in training Indian specialists to operate in polar waters, the official said.

The deficit of domestic technical fleet is among the key challenges for Russia’s infrastructure projects nowadays.

The dredging fleet available in Russia today is an order of magnitude inferior to the fleet of specialized foreign companies that have left the Russian market.

According to the estimates of FSUE Hydrographic Company, presented by General Director Aleksandr Bengert, the total capacity of Russia’s hopper dredgers is 39.000 cbm, while Belgian company DEME (one of the world’s leaders in the dredging market which left Russia in the beginning of 2022) has a fleet of hopper dredgers of 240.000 cbm in capacity.