Under the contract signed by the port’s authority and the Dutch company, the winner of a respective tender, part of the inner harbor from the northern part of the port to the Malku Bay would be deepened to 15.5 meters, the authority said in a press release on Wednesday.
Deepening of the shipping channel will enable more heavily loaded vessels to call to the port resulting in a lower intensity of navigation – the carriage term of cargoes will get shorter, air pollution will be reduced, and bigger safety of navigation will be assured.
EU structural funds are expected to co-finance the port’s dredging projects at the rate of 85 percent.
The Dutch company previously carried out a project for the deepening and widening of the Klaipeda port area, which then saw the port area widened to 150 meters and deepened to 14.5 meters. It also worked on deepening of the Malku Bay in the southern part of the Lithuanian port.