These four ports, together with shipping company Viking Line, met in Turku in late October to start off an EU-funded joint project aiming to improve the maritime links between Sweden and Finland.
The joint project includes preparations andconstruction of waste water reception facilities and installations to enable ro-ro and ro-pax ferries to connect to onshore power supply. It also includes planning for reception of scrubber sludge and LNG bunkering.
Viking Line, operating between Turku and
Stockholm, is aiming to develop a safe, efficient and environmental adopted
ro-ro passenger ferry concept to operate between Finland and Sweden.
The shipping industry is in a transition phase towards becoming more sustainable, due to stricter environmental legislation. The Baltic Sea is designated as a special area under Annex IV of MARPOL where stringent regulations for discharge of waste water will apply from 2019 for new passenger vessels and 2021 for existing passenger vessels.
“By investing in environmental services, our ports create the possibility for our customers to not only comply with existing environmental regulations, but also to go beyond legislations. These are important measures to create a sustainable maritime link between Finland and Sweden.” says Christian Ramberg, CEO, Port of Turku.
The project runs until the end of December 2016 and has been granted EU-funding from the Connecting Europe Facility programme up to a maximum of EUR 2,650,000.