A tender on the development of the port has now been announced by the Federal Port Agency (Rosmorport). The upgrade of the port is estimated to cost 762 million RUB (€20 million), information from the agency indicates.
The winners of the open tender will be announced in early April, Regnum reports.
The passenger port is today used mainly for passenger traffic to the settlements along the Kola Bay, as well as to the towns situated along the Barents Sea coast.
The reconstruction of the port passenger station is part of a grand plan for the upgrade of the central waterfront areas in Murmansk. The facelift, which is to be completed by year 2016, the 100-year anniversary of the city, will include a major reconstruction of the local nearby train station. With its new sea façade, Murmansk intends to get a new attractive seaside area which includes areas for cruise liners, space for the floating museums of icebreaker Lenin and the submarine K-3.
Read also: Facelift for Murmansk waterfront
The Murmansk Sea Passenger Port (Photo: Thomas Nilsen)
Murmansk is also increasingly a destination for foreign-flagged cruise liners. As previously reported, nine foreign flagged passenger vessels have announced their arrival in 2012.
Until now, a major challenge for Murmansk as a cruise vessel destination is the current legislation that forbids foreign flagged vessels to arrive in the central passenger harbor close to the city centre. Here, only Russian passenger vessels are allowed, while the foreign cruise vessels have to sail to the less attractive fishery harbor south of the centre.
With the reconstruction of the passenger port, that is likely to change.
