United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and the Russian Ministry of Transport are going to sign a contract for building four icebreakers, a Transport Ministry official said Friday, RBC reports.
"The contract for four icebreakers is going to be signed very soon. We are now just finalizing with USC the vessels specifications, it’s a difficult order," Deputy Transport Ministry Viktor Olersky was quoted as saying.
The Russian government allocated in the federal budget for 2012 and for the 2013-14 period RUB 20 billion for a nuclear-powered icebreaker and over RUB 17 billion for diesel-powered ice-class vessels. Russia will spend RUB 6.26 bn for the construction of diesel-powered 25MW icebreaker and about 11 billion for 16MW diesel-electric icebreakers.