26 November 2008 | Bucharest will become the Danube’s fifth port capital when the sailing canal connecting the city to the river opens in 2014.

Romania’s environmental ministry approved the project for the canal’s completion earlier this week. The company that will design and finish the canal has to be chosen by July of 2010, so that construction works can begin, which will last four years, Antonel Tănase, state secretary in the Monistry of Transport, told the Romanian Realitatea television station.

The finalisation of the project, 70 per cent of which was completed before 1990, will cost over 500,000 euro, which will come either from European funds or the company that will build the canal, Tănase added.

“After the project is fully completed, Bucharest will become the fifth capital port on the Danube,” Tănase noted. The four other capital cities located on the Danube are Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade.

The canal between the Danube and Bucharest will have the capacity to transport 20 million tons of goods per year. It will secure irrigation for over 150 hectares of farm land. The project will create 10,000 new work places.

According to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, the construction of the sailing canal began in 1986 and 70 per cent of it were completed by 1898. With the fall of communism in December of 1989, construction was halted and the project was officially frozen in 1994.

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