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STX Finland Oy and Viking Line ABP have signed an agreement for the construction of an environmentally friendly, new generation cruise ferry for Viking Line, which will be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The ship will be built at Turku shipyard and will be delivered to Viking Line at the beginning of 2013. The agreement includes an option for a sister ship. The contract price is approximately 240 million euros.

According to STX Finland, the new cruise ferry will be the most environmentally friendly big passenger vessel to date. The vessel will use LNG as fuel and have no marine emissions and its aerial emissions will be extremely low.

The vessel has been specially designed to operate in the delicate and shallow waters of the Finnish and Swedish archipelago. The wave forming and noise generation have been minimised, STX Finland said.

The cruise ferry will be around 214 metres in length with a gross tonnage of 57,000. The ship is planned to have capacity for 2800 passengers and will be operated by a 200-member crew.

The vessel will have 1275 lane-metres for trucks and a separate car deck with approximately 500 lane-metres for passenger cars.

Commenting on the agreement, Juha Heikinheimo, President of STX Finland Oy, said: "The signed agreement is an indication of the competence that the Finnish shipbuilding cluster has as a builder of innovative and highly environmentally friendly ships. I am delighted that we get the opportunity to build at Turku Shipyard a cruise ferry for our domestic shipping company Viking Line to operate between Turku and Stockholm."

"The design of the new ship will start immediately at Turku shipyard, and the actual building of the ship starts during fall of 2011," added Heikinheimo.