OREANDA-NEWS. June 28, 2010. Riga City Council announced a tender for contract for the transfer of the port of Riga from downtown to the Russian island (Krievu sala). Total project cost is estimated at 130 million lats (about EUR183.5 million), including 75 million lats of Port Riga’s fund, the rest - of the EU’s fund. Only several firms were invited to participate in the closed bidding, Telegraf.lv agency reports. The bids should be submitted before July 14th this year. The companies will be picked to take part in the competition.

The project means relocation of the facilities of the ports Andrejsala and Export port to the Russian island, much closer to the mouth of the Daugava River. Currently, the inbound ships have to go some extra 15-20 km to the existing terminals. That reduces the competitiveness of the harbor. Besides, the operations of port in the vicinity of Riga may have negative impact on the city life.

There are 64 hectares of empty land currently on Krievu sala. The new port project includes building of seven berths, railyard and scores of terminals. The future port’s design annual capacity is 22 million tons of cargo, primarily coal (12m tons), or about 60% of current throughput of the Free Port of Riga.

The Russian Island port is scheduled to start operating in 2014.

Freeport of Riga lies on both banks of the River Daugava (Western Dvina). The total area of the port – 6.348 ha, length of berths – 13.818 m, maximum draft of vessels at berths – 12.2 m. Transits make up 80% of overall freight traffic, carried to / from the CIS countries. Last year’s statistics showed the Port of Riga handled 29.72 million tons, a year-over-year 0.5% growth.