Global shipping traffic between western nations and east Asia passes through three primary routes, the Suez Canal-Malacca Strait, the Cape of Good Hope-Malacca Strait, and the NSR. Of the three, the first two bear high-value global traffic and hold enormous strategic appeal. The third, however, is becoming a viable alternative hastily, remaining open for extended periods due to global warming. The Trans-Arctic Sea Route comprises three sea routes: Northwest Passage along the northern coast of Canada, the Transpolar Sea Route running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean across the center of the Arctic Ocean (unusable now due to pack ice), and the NSR. The NSR is a 5,600 km shipping route that runs along the northern coast of Russia between the Barents and Kara Seas and ends in the Bering Strait. The NSR is primarily utilised by tankers and dry cargo ships, accounting for 82 per cent of all the transits, while transit constituting passengers, cruise, and research ships account for a mere 5 per cent. The NSR holds time and emission reduction possibilities for countries such as China. Reducing time from Shanghai to Kirkenes, in Norway, to merely 22.5 days instead of 32-38 days through Malacca, China hopes to develop Kirkenes as the first port on call in Europe. A wider adoption of NSR will, of course, require navigation competency over the still present sea ice, which constitutes a hazard for navigation, more cargo ports along the NSR, higher insurance premiums, sufficient coverage of charts, search and rescue facilities, and more days available for navigation (<155 days per year). With the Arctic sea ice extent decreasing at an average rate of -13.1 per cent per decade during summer and -2.6 per cent every decade during summer and winter respectively, NSR may account for 4.7 per cent of the future global trades by 2030s assuming the route is open all year round. However the volume, the nature of cargo, its value, and strategic advantage of the NSR need a thorough review in the Indian context.
