When speaking at the meeting dedicated to the development of water utilization system in the Volga Basin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on ensuring guaranteed depth of 4 meters on the Volga river.
According to the meeting transcript published on the official website of RF Government, Dmitry Medvedev said: “Efforts should be undertaken to make the Volga navigable wherever it is possible, to guarantee that the depth of navigable waters is at least 4 meters”.
The Prime Minister also said that apart from cleaning the banks and channel dredging, it is necessary to raise the sunken ships from the bottom of the river and scrap them. There are almost 100 abandoned ships on the bottom of the river.
“As part of the Inland Water Ways project, allocations are made for reconstruction of navigational hydraulic structures, their maintenance till 2024. They are about RUB 55 billion for hydraulic engineering structures on the Moscow Canal, Rybinsk, Gorodets, Saratov, Cheboksary and Samara hydraulic systems. There are certain problems involves including discussions about what is to be built and how”, said Dmitry Medvedev.