Full implementation of River Information Services on the Sava River Waterway

BASIC PROJECT DATA

Project ID: PA1A094
Website: www.vodniputovi.hr

NEED AND ADDED VALUE FOR THE DANUBE REGION STRATEGY

The Sava River waterway, being the longest waterway in Croatia, is presently severely underused, river transport being limited to scarce traffic on small river sections of the waterway.

The Sava River is navigable over a stretch of 594 km (starting from the confluence with the Danube, according to the brand new river chainage) and links the economies of the four Sava riparian states of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Based on the existing and/or planned construction of the traffic infrastructure the Sava River waterway, with several ports of the Adriatic, the available port infrastructure along the Sava River and the connection with the Danube waterway, provides a sound basis for further development of inland navigation transport. As the elementary transport mode of the future, it is strongly supported by the EU transport policy.

Despite its natural and geographic advantages, over the last 20 years, the Sava River waterway system has been neglected and its current condition is poor due to many external, but also internal factors. Due to the homeland war in the Sava basin territory, traffic was completely halted at the period, whereas the maintenance of the Sava River waterway system was not carried out. Damaged infrastructure and the presence of unexploded ordnance do not merely pose a constant threat to navigation, but to the environment as well.

In addition to the maintenance work done by the Croatian Agency for Inland Waterways over the course of the last three years, no significant infrastructural investments were made, neither to improve the navigation safety nor to increase the competitiveness of inland navigation transport on the Sava waterway. The current state of waterway basically starts the chain reaction as such; poor infrastructure conditions cause low levels of navigation safety, which inevitably hinder any inland waterway transport development on the waterway.

The most reliable solution was the implementation of the latest information and communication technologies, River Information Services, which are necessary for several reasons. First and foremost, safety. River Information Services (RIS) drastically improve safety of inland waterway navigation by utilization of the AIS (automatic identification system) and VHF networks in order to enable vessel tracking and tracing, vessel-vessel and vessel-shore communication, both data and voice communication, the ability to “see another vessel behind the bend” etc.

In addition to the safety element, RIS are a standard proscribed by the EU transport policy and as such, represent a prerequisite of national transport policies of all EU candidate and member states.

OBJECTIVE(S) OF THE PROJECT

The objective of the project was to improve the safety and efficiency of inland waterway transport on the Sava river which encompassed all the main specific objectives of the operation:

To enhance the traffic safety by monitoring and managing the traffic on the Sava river waterway,
to optimize the utilization of the Sava river,
to establish manageability of the traffic on the Sava river by providing the possibility of giving navigational/directional aids to traffic,
to enable the authorities to manage and plan the traffic operation and strategy,
to improve the exchange of information for facilitating cross-border operations and support authorities in law enforcement,
to enable quick and timely response in the event of an accident or incident which involves hazardous cargo,
to enable the authorities to distribute information to other operators and organizations,
to integrate the information in logistic chains and enable seamless transport operations, and
to reduce environmental hazard and polluting emissions and spills due to accidents.

CONDUCTED PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Activities which were performed under this operation referred to tendering, procurement and contracting (including supervision services, implementation, tender evaluation, consultancy and project monitoring) and included two phases of the operation:

1. Procurement of proper RIS and Voice VHF systems

Procurement of proper RIS and Voice VHF systems were performed as two tenders: service tender and supply tender. Supplies and services required for this operation were determined according to the previous technical specification for the Sava River (Detailed Design and Prototype Installation for the RIS on the Sava River – 2010) and according to the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) which defined the following main components:

Fairway Information Service by means of Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC)
Fairway Information Service by means of Notices to Skippers (NtS)
Fairway Information Service by means of dGPS and AIS
Tracking and Tracing Service by means of Inland AIS
Electronic Ship Reporting System (ERI)
Hull database
Gateway portal
Portal for commercial users
Voice VHF system

Supply tender provided the necessary supplies for the implementation of RIS and Voice VHF systems.

Service tender included procurement for the following services:

Development, installation and integration of Tracking and Tracing System
Development and installation of Hull Database System
Installation of Land User Work Stations
Installation of Vessel User Terminals
Development and installation of Voice VHF system
Voice VHF system and AIS system integration
RIS System Integration
Support for filing AIS Base station permits

2. Installation of RIS and Voice VHF system

This phase included the installation of all necessary IT, RIS and VHF equipment on the shore, on the vessels and in the land work stations and performance of all necessary services in order to establish the fully functional RIS and Voice VHF systems on the Sava River. Regular supervision and project monitoring by the Recipient were also performed in this phase.

TRANSBOUNDARY IMPACT

Republic of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia

PROJECT BENEFICIARIES / TARGET GROUPS

Industries in the Sava region (especially steel, oil, fertilizer and agriculture production)
Shipping industries
Ports
Tourism (especially nautical tourism)
Inland waterway authorities in the Sava riparian countries

STATUS AND TIMEFRAME

Start date: 24.08.2015
End date: 24.11.2016
The project is already concluded.

FINANCING

Total budget: 760,000 EUR
EU funds: 646,000 EUR were funded by Operational Programme ‘Transport’ (OPT) 2007–2013 (IPA, ERDF)
National funds: 114,000 EUR
The project was financed with loans from International Financing Institutions (IFIs): World Bank, EBRD

PROJECT TEAM

Project leader: Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure of Croatia
(website: www.mppi.hr)
For each part of the project (e.g. detailed design, EIA, works) different project leaders were nominated.
Address: Krležin Gvozd 1a; Zagreb / Croatia

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

PROJECT CROSS – REFERENCE

Platform for the implementation of NAIADES (PLATINA)
Implementation of River Information Services in Europe (IRIS Europe 3)

STRATEGIC REFERENCE

European Action Programme for Inland Waterway Transport (NAIADES)
White Paper: “European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide”
TEN-T Policy
SEETO Core Network and transport strategies of the Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

RELEVANT LEGISLATION

Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin
TEN-T Guidelines
European Agreement on Main Inland Waterways of International Importance (AGN)

EUSDR EMBEDDING

EUSDR COMPLIANCE

OTHER RELEVANT ISSUES

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

Continuing cooperation and coordination of the riparian countries (secured trough Sava Commission).

META DATA

Data provided by: Ana Barišić (Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Croatia) – 24.04.2012
Last update by: Ana Barišić (Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Croatia) – 25.01.2017

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