Vistula Spit canal strategic and profitable for Poland - minister
A planned canal across Poland's northern Vistula Spit will open northeast Poland to global navigation, deputy Maritime Economy and Inland Waterways Minister Grzegorz Witkowski Wednesday told the Senate (upper house) infrastructure and environment committees.
The committees passed an act founding the canal project without amendments. When ready, the new waterway will connect Gdansk Bay and the Vistula Lagoon, now divided by the Vistula Spit.
Outlining the project's assents Witkowski stressed that the canal would give the Vistula Lagoon-located city of Elblag full access to maritime navigation by reducing the water connection between it and the northern Baltic coast by 90 kilometres.
In this context he reminded that Elblag was the only city in the world with a seaport and no access to the sea, and said Poland's failure to deal with the problem over the past decades was "shameful".
"This is the only case in the world where a standing harbour with a Schengen-adapted passenger terminal has no sea access. This is shameful and a point of compunction for us that the independent Polish state has been unable to deal with this problem for the past 27 years", Witkowski stressed.
Witkowski added that the canal project would be accompanied by other investments in the Vistula Spit area.
The project's rapporteur Jerzy Wilk said the canal project was eagerly awaited by the local population, who saw it as a development chance for the region. Witkowski also pointed out that the canal will improve passage from Gdansk Bay to the Vistula Lagoon, now possible only via the Russian-controlled Baltiysk Strait.
In this context Wilk mentioned Russian blockades of Polish border guard vessels wishing to enter the Lagoon, and said it was "absurd that Poland, a free country and an EU and NATO member, had to ask another country for permission to enter its own territorial; waters".
Wilk added that the canal will also be a tourists attraction and a welcome development for German and Scandinavian sailors, who now needed a Russian visa to enter the Vistula Lagoon.
The canal is to be 1.3 kilometres long and 5 metres deep to accomodate seagoing ships. The project is to launch in 2018, its completion is planned in 2022. The overall cost is estimated at ap. EUR 204 mln (PLN 880 mln).
Vistula Lagoon is part of the Baltic Sea, namely the Gdansk Bay, separated from it by Vistula Spit with the only water passage being the Russian Strait of Baltiysk (Ciesnina Pilawska).
The Elblag port (40 km from Kaliningrad Oblast) is Vistula Lagoon's largest and EU's nearest port to handle transport with Kaliningrad and Baltyisk. So far the only route connecting it with the Baltic Sea has been the Strait of Baltiysk, which due to procedural requirements prevents unrestrained marine traffic and has at many occasions caused problems for both leisure and trade activities.(PAP)
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