River navigation restarted on Prut

After a break of more than 20 years, today Moldova restarted navigation on the Prut River from Giurgiulesti free port upstream to Cahul. This will enable imports of materials necessary for the rehabilitation and extension of roads in southern Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. After taking a trip from Giurgiulesti to Valeni on a ship named Ungheni, Prime Minister Vlad Filat stated that resuming navigation on the 83 km long Giurgiulest-Cahul segment represents a first step and by the end of 2012 navigation on the Prut will be possible as far upstream as Leova. The prime minister noted that in order to make navigation possible on the Giurgiulesti-Cahul segment the river bed and the fairway was cleaned at a cost of 200,000 lei. At the beginning of next week, the Transport Ministry will hold a meeting to decide what further works need to be done to improve navigability. Transport Minister Anatol Salaru said the segment allows the navigation of cargo vessels with a capacity of up to 600 tonnes. It is estimated that until the end of the year, the segment will be used to transport 200,000 tonnes of construction materials.