A purpose built Venice-based company called Vgate and led by local ship agent Alessandro Santi has presented a project to build a new container terminal 2.3 km offshore the port of Chioggia in the North Adriatic sea.
The proposed infrastructure, which had just been submitted to the Italian Environment Ministry for evaluation, would be realised in three steps starting from 2022 and provides a transport solution to the increasingly congested city. It will have a natural depth of at least 16 m and be able to accommodate two ultra large container ships simultaneously.
In the first step the new offshore terminal due to be realized in project finance and 100% financed by private investors will be able to handle 500,000 teu yearly, while in a second phase the annual throughput could reach 1.2m teu and in a third stage – after 10 years – 2m teu.
A bridge will directly link the new infrastructure with the national road and rail network.
The estimated cost ranges between €1M and €1.5m and, whether and when the project will be approved by the Italian Ministry for Environment, a public tender will be launched to find companies interested at building and operating the terminal.
