Ukraine intends to begin dredging the River Danube’s Bystre Estuary to a depth of 7.2 meters in 2023.
Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Development of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Yurii Vaskov announced this at the Grain Ukraine conference on 30 May, the CFTS portal reports.
"I believe that we (Ukraine) should have similar logistical conditions and technical characteristics for navigation on the Danube as our Romanian partners," Vaskov said.
As the CFTS portal reported earlier, Ukraine has restored the declared water depths and the declared draft of 6.5 meters in the Ukrainian section of the River Danube. This made it possible for Danube ports to reach a record 12 ship calls and 90,000 tons of freight per day at the beginning of March. The average daily number had reached 16 by the end of the month.
The Ukrainian Seaports Authority (USPA) stated in comments to the CFTS portal that the operational dredging of the Bystre Estuary facilitated rapid development to Danube ports and affected cargo flows significantly. For example, according to the USPA, this is demonstrated by the fact that the operators of the Izmail port achieved their annual transshipment target in early May.
