Inland waterways transport in the Czech Republic within the framework of “Danube-Oder-Elbe’ project

Inland navigation in the Czech Republic is subject to the decisions of the government. The state carries out investments related to its development. The port closest to the Czech Republic is the port of Hamburg. On the territory of the country, however, there are three river basins of three large rivers – the Danube, the Elbe, and the Oder. The annual investment budget for repairs, construction of new ports, railways, service centres and ship repairs amounts to 500 million euros. The management and use of this budget is handled by the Waterway Directorate, which is composed of only 25 persons.

The Czech Republic’s long-term projects will be aimed at connecting the three above-mentioned rivers – the Danube, the Elbe, and the Oder. A feasibility study for this investment is currently being prepared; the members of the monitoring committee are the Waterway Directorate and Polish and Slovak partners. The feasibility study will answer the question whether the project is worth pursuing. The completion of works is expected in January 2018.

Lubomir Fojtu, Director of the Waterways Directorate of the Czech Republic expressed his satisfaction with the fact that Poland has improved the navigability of the Odra River. He said that extending the navigability of the Oder River to Ostrava is extremely important to the Czech Republic, as Ostrava is a large industrial centre, and its infrastructure can handle large-sized goods, which are currently transported only by land. Studies have shown that a better navigability of the river will allow the centre to increase the production of heavy equipment by up to 30%.

The Czech government highly values cooperation with the Polish Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation, as well as with representatives of local authorities, as this cooperation brings tangible results.

While describing how the Czech government cooperates with the private sector, Director Lubomir Fojtu began his speech by mentioning that he is a member of the largest association of private ship owners in the Czech Republic, whose task is to solve problems related to water infrastructure, mainly in technical terms. Nowadays, he applies the experience gained in the private sector to work at governmental levels. Close cooperation between the ministry of transport and ship owners allows the Czech Republic to identify the most urgent problems. In the Czech Republic, there are 300 km of rivers adapted to handle river transport; so-called bottlenecks occur on the Oder River and on the Czech-German border, where one end lock is missing. At the moment, a project is being prepared to solve this problem. Cooperation with the private sector in improving the navigability of rivers is important to the Czech government, as evidenced by the numerous projects undertaken in this area.

Mr Fojtu was also asked whether the return of Czech freight on Polish inland and river routes is possible ?
He answered in the affirmative.

Lubomir Fojtu, Director of the Waterways Directorate of the Czech Republic