Inland shipping company Severrechflot based in Khanty-Mansiysk named Nizhny Novgorod headquartered Alekseyev Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau as the winner of the tendering process and awarded the contract for construction of Meteor type river passenger hydrofoil vessels of Project 03580.
Other competitors in the tender included Zelenodolsk Shipyard named after A.M. Gorky and Khabarovsk Shipyard.
Severrechflot said delivery of one vessel is slated for 2021 and the remaining three Meteors will be delivered in 2022. The company providing inland passenger transport plans to update its fleet with six new vessels of various types.
Serial production of Meteors of previous design ceased in 2007. About 400 ships were launched between 1961 and 1991. The remaining Meteors of RRR’s Lake Class currently have no alternatives in ill-roaded areas of Siberia and the Far East. However, their service life has almost expired: all of them are 40 years old and more. The hydrofoil of the modernized design, Meteor 120R, will continue the series that had proved itself to be reliable and economically viable in operation.
Key particulars of Project 03580, Meteor 120R: LOA: 34.4 m; breadth overall: 9.2 m; height on the wings (from surface): 9.0 m; overall floating draft: 2.5 m; full displacement: 68 tonnes; travel speed: 65 km / h; passenger capacity: 116 people; crew: 4; cruising range: 600 km; endurance: 8 hours.
Nizhny Novgorod headquartered Alekseyev Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau (named after Rostislav Alexeyev) builds high-speed civil, dual-purpose and military vehicles based on various hydrodynamic principles. These are hovercraft and hydrofoils, air cavity craft and gliding boats with different bottom configuration, multipurpose platforms and ekranoplanes.