Planned Polish canal will boost tourism: official
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
02.11.2017 12:35
A planned Polish canal linking the Elbląg seaport with the Baltic Sea will boost tourism, according to the mayor of the northern Sztutowo district, where the canal will be built.
The Vistula Lagoon. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/NASA.
Mayor Jakub Farinade said the canal would create new jobs in the local tourism sector, but he added that infrastructure supporting trade, services, and sports needed to be built.
On 19 October, Polish Maritime Minister Marek Gróbarczyk announced the canal would be built in Nowy Świat, a village in the Sztutowo district.
The planned investment, which is expected to cost PLN 880 million (EUR 207 million), will allow deep-draught vessels from Poland’s Elbląg Seaport to enter the Baltic Sea without passing through Russian waters.
Environmental activists have opposed the canal project, arguing that the undertaking would disrupt the migration routes of various animal species.
The Vistula Lagoon, part of the Baltic Sea, is almost entirely cut off from Gdańsk Bay by the Vistula Spit.
The only existing link is the Strait of Baltiysk, located in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave.
Construction on the 1.3 km long, five-metre deep Polish canal is expected to start in 2018 and end in 2022. (vb/pk)
Source: niezalezna.pl