The Warsaw-based VAN cargo has organised, within the EU-backed EMMA Extension project, an inland waterway shipment of containerised freight from Gdańsk to Chełmno and back.

The set that left the Port of Gdańsk on 6 April consisted of a pusher tug and a barge with six FEUs, carrying goods for TZMO, a manufacturer and supplier of sanitary articles, cosmetics, and medical devices.

After going 152 km southbound, the barge will arrive in Chełmno on 8 April for the cargo to be transshipped onto trucks.

TZMO also wants to get its goods transported by the barge back to Gdańsk; the same interest was expressed by IKEA. The barge is expected back in Gdańsk on 9 April.

The tug-barge set is accompanied by researchers and students from Kazimierz Wielki University who from a boat belonging to the Regional Water Management Board in Gdańsk will investigate the traversed section, including the identification of obstacles to navigation.

"This EMMA Extension pilot aims to check the functionality of inland waterway transport in the supply chain and to highlight the benefits of inland waterway transport, which is still a unique means of transport in Poland. Inland waterway transport is in line with the European Union's transport policy as well as the Polish sustainable growth and development policy which requires the use of more environmentally friendly and low-emission modes of transport," Rafał Modrzewski, Deputy Director of International Cooperation Department at the Marshal's Office of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region, commented.

Back in 2017, the original EMMA project organised a promotional and research inland waterway cruise from Gdańsk to Warsaw. A location study for the planned Bydgoszcz-Solec Kujawski multimodal platform was also developed within the project.

Photo: EMMA Extension