OREANDA-NEWS. On September 5 in Mykolayiv Regional State Administration under the direction of Head of Mykolayiv Regional State Administration Mykola Kruglov with participation of the heads of local authorities, bodies of self-government and NIBULON there was held a meeting as to implementation of the project to improve navigable conditions along the Southern Bug River.

The main theme was to implement the project on improvement of navigable conditions along the Southern Bug River in compliance with orders given by Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and Deputy Minister of the Infrastructure Dmytro Demydovych.

“The government, on Ukraine’s President initiative, paid attention that logistic scheme should be economically sufficient in order to improve export mechanism. The government issued an appropriate order as to renovation of operation of the Dnipro and the Southern Bug Rivers. The Southern Bug River is a state river, and interests as to its development are national. We must realize responsibility laid on us. And we are responsible for efficient operation. It is necessary to make everything possible to implement the project (NIBULON’s project on dredging), to return competitiveness of our waterway, to revive water (environmental and economic) transport. Among all companies only NIBULON (without requiring financial support, performing things on own account) is engaged in this issue”, stressed Mykola Kruglov.

Sergiy Besedin, NIBULON’s deputy general director of capital construction, described the company’s plans as to navigation revival on the Southern Bug River having stressed that the investment program is an effective way to develop social and economic infrastructure and a means to reduce anthropogenic load from motor transport in Mykolayiv region.

He mentioned that within the program the company constructed modern transshipment terminal of “Novoodes’ka” branch in 2011. At present NIBULON has two construction sites (Voznesensk and Mykolayiv regions), but their implementation has been suspended due to lack of depth of navigable path from Mykolayiv city to Voznesensk town (with length of 102.2 km). Due to NIBULON’s funds there were carried out complex measurement of these depths and analysis of rocks. The results showed that in some areas the river depth is only 1.6 m! For comparison: at the end of the 1970s the minimal depth was 2.8 m. Thus, constant river shoaling causes environmental, social and economic problems in the region.

By the way, in 1991 cargo turnover along the Southern Bug River comprised 1.1 mln tons, in 2001 – 40 thousand tons, in 2012 - only 18.4 thousand tons. Volumes of passenger carriage comprised 1.1 mln passengers in 1991, in 2001 – 761 thousand, in 2012 - above 300 thousand.

Andriy Volik, NIBULON’s deputy general director of navigation safety, familiarized participants with the program’s technical component. According to him, on completion of depth measurement, by NIBULON’s order there was developed project to improve navigable conditions of waterways of the Southern Bug River – from Voznesensk town to Mykolayiv city performed by “Institute “Ukrrichtransproject” Ltd. In the project there are specified dimensions of navigable path and its directions; there were determined scope of work and key areas (Slyvyno – Matviyivka, Kiryakivka, Konstantynivka, Gurivka, Tryhaty, Sapetnya – Morozovka). The total amount of dredging work comprises 1.187 mln cubic meters of soil, the cost of work is UAH 70 mln.

Investment program implementation in the region means:

• investment from construction of two terminals (about UAH 400 mln);
• creation of new workplaces (a minimum of 180);
• shipbuilding sector development in the region due to construction of vessels for NIBULON (the investment amount is about UAH 400 mln);
• increase of water transportation and profitability of water transport;
• revival of passenger carriage;
• Ukrainian product cost increase on the world market.

Besides, during the meeting there were discussed a number of other questions, which solution can influence on development of Ukraine’s logistic system considerably.

This year Ukraine has harvested one of the best yields of grain crops – above 50 mln tons. Prime Minister of Ukraine issued an appropriate order as to implementation of complex mechanism to optimize logistic expenses on the grain market in 2013-2014 marketing year, as the agro-industrial complex has become a growing point for Ukraine’s economy.

In particular, Andriy Vasylev, NIBULON’s deputy general director on legal and economic issues, while introducing statistical data informed about high price of vessel calling at terminals and ports for native operators in comparison with foreign ones, thus, creating unequal conditions for native traders. Groundless increase of railroad transportation cost causes considerable production decrease.

Summing up the meeting, Mykola Kruglov stressed that it was necessary to implement NIBULON’s project, and he gave appropriate protocol orders to the heads of local authorities and self-government. In particular, there was decided to enter into cooperation with district and village council, Regional State Administration and also to create a working group and to organize its cooperation with the core ministry.