Transport Minister calls for further expansion of Bronka port's rail infrastructure capacity
Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov believes that capacity of the railway infrastructure connected to MSCC Bronka (Multipurpose Sea Cargo Complex Bronka, Big Port St. Petersburg) should be expanded, IAA PortNews correspondent reports citing the official.
Maxim Sokolov speaking at a meeting of the Coordination Council for Development of the Transport System in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region said that the rail infrastructure throughput requires expansion as the current volume of customer orders at the Bronka terminal have far exceeded the facility technical capabilities.
Aleksei Shukletsov, Executive Director of Fenix LLC (investor of the Bronka project) told that according to his estimates rail traffic to the container terminal will increase to 3 million tonnes by 2020. His company is ready to develop a design of a new rail line to bypass St. Petersburg along the territory of Leningrad Oblast to Bronka with capacity of more than 8 million tonnes of rail freight per year.
Fenix LLC also continues to prepare a package of documents for the Ministry of Transport to submit amendments to the FTP "Development of Transport System of the Russian Federation, 2010-2020” related to the development first phase (up to 3.8 million t/y) for construction of rail connections to MSCC Bronka.
MSCC Bronka (Multipurpose Sea Cargo Complex Bronka) is a new deepwater terminal at the port of Saint-Petersburg. The project is implemented through private-public partnership (PPP). Investments from the federal budget (RUB 17 bln) allowed for building an access canal and water area with a depth of 14.4 m as well as a transport junction with direct connection of Bronka to the ring road. Construction of coastal infrastructure through project financing with Fenix LLC as a private investor began in 2011. In December 2015 it was completed and the first phase of the project was put into operation. The capacity of Bronka’s Phase 1 is 1.45 million TEUs and 260,000 units of Ro-Ro cargoes. In the future the MSCC Bronka expansion will help increase the facility's container throughput to 1.9 million TEUs. Port Bronka is able to accommodate Post-Panamax containerships and the ferries of Finnstar class. The port territory comprises a logistics center and a State Border checkpoint. In April 2017, MSCC Bronka was acknowledged as a strategic investment project of Saint-Petersburg, and the project developer Fenix LLC as strategic Investor.
