LENINGRAD REGION, July 25 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Transport Ministry worked out a number of proposals following the Bulgaria ship accident in Tatarstan.
These include mandatory insurance on inland waterways, unscheduled inspections of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs working in the field of transport, state and port control, and transfer to regions of moorage walls that are currently controlled by the Federal State Property Service.
“We have analysed the situation in the foiled of legislation and wanted to ask you to support our proposals. They were negotiated with the Association of Inland Waterways Carriers and the Union of Transport Workers,” Transport Minister Igor Levitin told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday, July 25.
Currently, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs can be inspected by supervisory bodies only once in three years. If a surprise inspection is needed, it has to be approved by a prosecutor. “We think there must be special measures for the transport industry so that supervisory bodies could get access to any port or airport and check such facilities on a permanent basis,” the minister said.
“Let’s do it by way of notification then,” Putin agreed. “This law will have to go through the State Duma in September,” he added.
Speaking of insurance, Levitin said, “We expect the State Duma to help us by adopting a law on the insurance of transportation services. We believe that this allow a company to insure its vehicles before the start of operation so that if there is an accident it could pay compensation to the families of killed passengers in the amount of two million roubles.”
Currently, these expenses are covered by the government. “We think that the responsibility of a carrier can be strengthened through insurance,” the minister added.
“The logic is that if a carrier insures its vehicle for such a decent amount, the insurance company will have to monitor its condition and everything related to it in order to avoid such expenses,” Putin explained.
Levitin agreed with him.
“This can’t hut, but this is not enough,” the prime minister said.
The Transport Ministry also suggested introducing state port control at river ports. “We have done this in seaports over the last several years. But practically all of the river ports are private. We think that state port control, like the one that exists in seaports which has proved efficient, and practically all vessels services in a certain port will be covered by such state port control,” Levitin said.