Capacity of the Northern Sea Route to increase 7 times by 2020

According to the Ministry of Regional Development’s forecast on the program of Russian Arctic zone development, freight traffic by the Northern Sea Route may increase over 7 times due to hydrocarbon production projects and foreign transit by 2020.

According to the basic scenario of the program, published at the portal of regulatory act preparation information disclosure, by 2020 the freight traffic may increase to 28.8 million tons, although by results of 2013 this rate expected to be 4 million tons. The increase will mainly depend on rates of mineral resources production, the RIA Novosti transmits.