The bed of the Prut River has been cleaned up to Cantemir and internal navigation on the Cahul – Cantemir sector, on a distance of 70 km, was restored. The fluvial port Ungheni invested about 800,000 lei in the cleaning works on this segment.
The first barge with 500 tonnes of gravel from Romania arrived in Cantermir on July 14. It takes 36 hours to ship goods from Braila to Cantemir and 16 hours from Giurgiulesti to Cantemir. Four barges with a capacity of 500 – 600 tonnes will be available to economic entities from April until October, when the fluvial navigation season on the Prut closes.
This type of transport was neglected until 2009, said Petru Codreanu, captain of the Giurgiulesti Port. “We are glad that the situation has changed. The customs ports bring a lot of money into the budget. For example, the clearance of a barge can bring €2,000 or even €3,000,” he stated.
Attending the opening ceremony, Minister of Transport and Road Infrastructure Vasile Botnari said that navigation on the Prut was restored last year, after a pause of 25 years, and reached Cahul. The works to clear the navigation channel will go on to reach Leova and then Ungheni.
According to the minister, the agricultural producers will be able to transport their harvest through the Giurgiulesti Port. There can be also imported building materials for constructing and repairing roads in southern Moldova. The extension of the port complex near Giurgiulesti, up to Cantemir, allowed Moldova to develop from a state without exit to the sea and with insignificant development prospects to a more attractive state for investments and trade. The shipping costs are seven times lower than the transportation of goods by road.
This year, up to 50,000 tonnes of building materials are to be brought into Moldova by naval ways, while the projections rise to 300,000 tonnes in the future. Each company negotiates individually the shipping prices with the state-run or private companies. About 20-30 million lei is transferred to the state budget from clearance alone.
