Swan Energy-promoted Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd (RNEL) and state-owned Cochin Shipyard Ltd are in advanced talks with Russia to construct two non-nuclear icebreaker ships each in a government brokered deal estimated to cost over Rs 40 billion for Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company ROSATOM to support its Northern Sea Route (NSR) development plan, multiple sources said. A top-level team from Swan’s shipyard located at Pipavav in Gujarat, comprising its Chief Executive Officer, Rear Admiral Vipin Kumar Saxena, (IN Retd), visited Moscow in early December to discuss the ice breaker shipbuilding order, a government official briefed on the visit said.Describing the three-day trip as “very successful”, the government official said, “Russia wants Pipavav Shipyard and Cochin Shipyard to finalise the order and start as soon as possible”. An icebreaker ship is used to break ice which makes it easier to melt, becoming water that absorbs more sunlight. Icebreakers play a crucial role in providing response capacity for crises and disasters in ice-covered waters. Russia is pitching the Northern Sea Route as an alternate global shipping lane, offering quicker transit time between Northern Europe and East Asia than the conventional Suez Canal route. Russia’s keenness to build four ice breaker ships in India has been bolstered by the return of President elect Donald Trump to the White House. “You can see Trump openly supporting Russia and vice versa with Putin. The Russians are very gung-ho about Trump taking over as President of the United States of America in mid-January when things are expected to fall in place,” the official said. Russia is enticing Indian yards to build the ice breaker ships for ROSATOM, holding out a promise to order big ships later, he said. “Russia wants to do everything with us; you take big bulkers, tankers and container ships especially with shipbuilding being given a thrust by the government. And, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Putin are syncing well,” the official said.