The reconstruction work now underway at the sea port terminal is the first stage of a major upgrade of Murmansk’s waterfront. The overall plan is to link the city center with the new sea port via the new railway station. All will be completed in 2016, when Murmansk will celebrate its 100-year anniversary of the city.
With the extended piers and deepening of the harbor, the idea is to open the passenger terminal for foreign cruise vessels and possible also a ferry connection between Finnmark and Murmansk. Today, foreign cruise vessels have to make port call to the remote located fishing harbor because the central passenger harbor does not have approval for immigration control, like it had in the early 90-ties.
The new attractive seaside will link tourism and local passenger travelers. The port is already the location of the Lenin icebreaker museum, and a plan exists to place the K3, Soviet’s first nuclear powered submarine at the pier as a museum.
Murmansk was in 2010 included to the list of ports that are allowed to receive cruise vessel tourists for up to 72-hours without holding a Russian visa.
