VESSEL REVIEW | Irtysh-2503 – Inland multi-bucket dredger for Kazakhstan's state waterways enterprise

Russian shipbuilder Stroyliderplus has handed over a new non-self-propelled, multi-bucket dredger to Kazakhstan Su Zholdary (KSZ), a republican state enterprise under the Committee of Railway and Water Transport of the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan.

The acceptance certificate for Irtysh-2503 was signed on September 17, 2026. The dredger is the lead vessel in a series being built under a strategic agreement between Stroyliderplus and KSZ. Construction took place at the Lotos production facility of United Shipbuilding Corporation's Southern Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Centre in Astrakhan, and the vessel was launched there on April 8 of this year.

Irtysh-2503 was built as an example of the Project FPDR1 series of dredgers developed by Flotproekt, a design bureau within the Stroyliderplus Group.

Construction of the dredger was supervised by the Lower Volga branch of the Russian Classification Society (RKO), and the vessel carries the RKO class notation O2,0 (ice 10) A, which indicates, safe operation in "category zero" inland water basins with wave heights of up to two metres (6.6 feet) and finely broken winter surface ice 10 cm (3.9 inches) thick.

Optimised for shallow waters

The new dredger has an LOA of 51.5 metres (169 feet), a beam of 12.2 metres (40 feet), a depth amidships of three metres (9.8 feet), and a draught of only 1.4 metres (4.6 feet). Her air draught is 11.5 metres (37.7 feet).

Flotproekt has described the Project FPDR1 vessel as a barge loading dredger. The design has an opening in the forward part of the hull for the bucket ladder, an engine room at the aft end, and an extensive two-tier superstructure.

The vessel was designed to be able to lift material from the bottom with a chain of buckets and load it into an attending barge rather than carrying spoil itself.

The designer rated production at 250 cubic metres (8,830 cubic feet) per hour, with dredging depths of between two and seven metres (6.6 and 23 feet). The vessel is intended for heavy cohesive and non-cohesive soils in categories I to V.

Designed to operate with a barge and tug as an integrated package

Power comes from two main engines rated at 350 kW (470 hp) each. Accommodation is provided for up to 28 crewmembers, and the fuel capacity can deliver a maximum endurance of 10 days.

Flotproekt also designed a hopper barge and a tug to operate with the Project FPDR1 dredger as a working set. The Northern Caspian Sea has been identified as the intended operating area.

According to Andrey Ozernykh, then-General Director of Flotproekt in 2024, the company began building dredgers because such vessels are, “in demand in the Caspian region, and the volume of dredging work is constantly increasing."

Stroyliderplus said the new KSZ dredger's entry into service would improve dredging operations on waterways and support growth in cargo transport along logistics corridors. The builder has since begun construction of a second FPDR1 dredger, which was ordered separately by Russian ferry and tour boat operator Vodohod Passenger Port.