Business news

MINSK, 1 July (BelTA) – The restoration of the waterway connection between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea via Belarus is supposed to start in 2015, BelTA learned from Sergei Zubko, Deputy Director General of the enterprise Dneprobugvodput, which operates inland waterways in Belarus.

Belarus intends to work together with Ukraine and Poland to restore the water transport connection E-40 that will link the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. Sergei Zubko said that meetings in Pinsk, Brest, and Lublin had been held to discuss the possibility. As a result of the meetings a special commission has been set up and a specification of requirements has been worked out. The specification of requirements has already been confirmed as compliant with European standards.

The feasibility study will be ready by 2015. The document will then be submitted to international organizations and governments of the countries concerned. “We hope that we will make the transition from planning to construction,” said Sergei Zubko. An international tender has been arranged already and a general contractor is being sought.

Sergei Zubko underlined that the implementation of the project will allow Belarusian water transport companies to switch from local transportation to international transportation. It will be possible to use river transport to carry construction cargoes and containers and expand passenger transportation services. “This future is now not as distant as it seemed to us in the past,” stated Sergei Zubko.

The project to restore the water transport connection E-40 that will link the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea is financed by the European Union. The project will be implemented in line with the program for transboundary cooperation of Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus in 2008-2013. According to preliminary estimates the project’s budget will be close to €1 million.