Klaipeda port invites bids for outer port feasibility study

  • 2017-12-01
  • LETA/TBT Staff

VILNIUS - The Lithuanian port of Klaipeda is seeking advisers to update an outer port feasibility study, with the  findings to be used by the government to decide whether to give the project the status of national importance.

The Klaipeda State Seaport Authority has launched a public procurement procedure for updating a feasibility study on expanding the Klaipeda port by building an outer port.

The advisers will be asked to look at two possible alternative locations for the planned outer port: Melnrage and Butinge.

Arvydas Vaitkus, the port's CEO, said in November that building an outer port might cost an estimated 800 million euros, adding that the port's authority would prefer it to be a concession project and that the bulk of the new capacity would be used for handling containers.

The government decided last month that the outer port project would be coordinated by a special governmental commission.

Plans call for building an outer port in Klaipeda by 2025, with the project expected to increase cargo traffic via Klaipeda by 35 million tons.

The Lithuania port handled 40 million tons of cargo last year and projects 41 million tons for the full year 2017.