Danube River Development Strategy

Abstract

The Danube is an essential Inland Water Transport (IWT) corridor, particularly for the hinterland connection for the Port of Constantza. This port became one of the largest and busiest ports on the Black Sea, due to its strategic location at the cross roads of Europe and Asia and due to its capacity to handle large volumes of different types of cargoes. With the ongoing economic reforms in Romania it is expected that the Port of Constantza will develop into a gateway for Eastern and Central Europe and efficient IWT hinterland connections are therefore required. The project "Danube River Development Strategy" aims to formulate a strategy and to define measures to increase the competitive position of IWT and to improve the navigability of the Romanian stretch of the Danube between the Iron Gates II and Giurgeni. The approach of the project can be characterized as strategy formulation to create a high capacity transport corridor at minimum investment costs. The project comprises two phases, i.e. River Status Phase and Strategy Development Phase. The first phase of the project has been completed in September 1994 with the submission of the River Status Report, which describes the present status of the Danube river followed by the generation of alternative development strategies for the Danube. In the second project phase selected strategies are analyzed followed by the selection of the preferred river development strategy. This Interim Report for the Strategy Development Phase includes the analyses of the various alternative development strategies. The report will be presented to and discussed with the Romanian authorities to select and further define the preferred development strategy. This preferred strategy will then be further analysed and reported in the Draft Final Report. The main objective of the Danube River Development Strategy project is to improve the navigation conditions of the Romanian section of the Danube between the Iron Gates II (rkm 869) and Giurgeni (rkm 239) in order to create a competitive IWT hinterland connection for the Port of Constantza. Various alternative development strategies have been considered. The strategies are rated on multiple criteria, where it appeared that all considered strategies are economically viable. The alternatives combi-c3 and combi-c4 appeared to have the best results. For description of all the alternatives we refer to the report.