EU Provides Funds for Tallinn-Helsinki Maritime Link Upgrade
Illustration. Image Courtesy: Pixabay under CC0 Creative Commons licenseThe European Union has granted an EUR 21.4 million (USD 24.6 million) funding in support of the infrastructure developments on Tallinn-Helsinki maritime link TWIN-PORT.
Namely, the funding was awarded to the ports of Tallinn and Helsinki, together with the City of Helsinki and the passenger ship operators Tallink, Viking Line and Eckerö Line, within the 2017 CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) Transport Blending Call for proposals. The total cost of the planned investments is EUR 71.2 million.
The current TWIN-PORT 3 project will concentrate on reducing the environmental impact of the increasing RoPax traffic and continues improving the multimodal transport link between Helsinki and Tallinn. Auto-mooring and on-shore power supply systems will be installed to the Old City Harbour in Tallinn and to the West Harbour in Helsinki to reduce noise and air pollutant in port areas.
TWIN-PORT 3 project will involve the period 2018-2023. Largest investments will be made by the Port of Helsinki and the City of Helsinki, EUR 24 million and EUR 27 million respectively. The Port of Tallinn will invest EUR 16 million and the ship operators EUR 4 million in total.
“The flows of traffic and passengers between the two cities have been constantly growing for a decade already. Therefore, the project is crucial for both cargo and passenger flows to ensure the smooth traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn,” Valdo Kalm, CEO of Port of Tallinn, said.
The previous two TWIN-PORT projects mainly consisted of building and development of the passenger terminals in Helsinki and Tallinn, opening the Muuga-Vuosaari ro-ro line and bringing a new LNG-fueled ferry MS MEGASTAR to serve Tallinn-Helsinki line.
