Croatia builds Danube-Sava channel

German daily newspaper Nahrihten fir ausenhandel writes that, by the year 2016, Croatia plans to build the channel 60 kilometers long that will connect the port of Vukovar on the Danube with the town of Sikirevci on the Sava, to which Vinkovci will be connected. The Minister of Transportation, Božidar Kalmeta, announced that the Ministry works on the project study at the moment. The channel, 30 meters wide and 3 meters deep, should cost about 4.5 billion HRK. In addition to the waterworks, construction of 16 road and 4 railway bridges, including access roads 50 kilometers long, is in the pipeline. During 2005, Port of Vukovar realized record reloading of goods (797,000 tons), whereas it plans to realize reloading of 850,000 tons of goods in 2006. During the time of SFRJ, annual turnover of the port amounted to 1.5 million tons.

In the first investment phase, Vukovar will obtain €25m for construction of New Port Istok, €15m of which will be provided by the State of Croatia and €10, will be provided by the concessionaires. In the second phase, New Port Zapad will be built. For the needs of Croatian Ministry of Sea, tourism, Transportation and Development, the study was elaborated by German company Dor kapital from Munich. In period from January to September 2005, 1.3 million tons of goods were reloaded in Croatian river ports, which is 24.7% more than in the first three quarters of the year 2004.