Russia is planning to adopt a bill regulating shipping on the increasingly popular Northern Sea Route this spring and at the same plans to commission hydrographic surveys, with an aim of determining water routes that will be safe for large ships, RIA Novosti informs.

“We will increase the hydrographic work in the Arctic to the year 2015-2016 to get a real picture of the depths for safe navigation,“ the deputy director of the Department of State Policy for Maritime and River Transport of Russia, Vitaly Klyuev stated at a press conference in RIA Novosti, adding that ‘white spots’, areas without depth data, on the charts will be updated with concrete data.

According to Klyuyev, the Ministry of Defence will transfer the responsibility for the maps to a non-military structure, namely to the FSUE ‘Hydrographic Enterprise’.

Since the 2011 budget included sufficient amount of funds for hydrographic purposes, there is an adequate amount of capital for surveying the Arctic project implementation. The work will be done in conjunction with SCF and Rosatomflot, nevertheless it will not cover the entire region but focus on Northern Sea Route.