900,000 Euro tender to update a master plan of Durres Port

TIRANA, Aug. 14 – The European Union said it will call a tender for an update of the existing development master plan of Albania’s largest Adriatic Port of Durres at a cost of up to 900,000 euro ($1.1 million).The provisional date of invitation to tender is October 5 and the provisional commencement date of the contract is December 18, the Tenders Electronic Daily, the supplement database to the EU’s Official Journal, reported on its website.The three-stage project is for the preparation of a master and a business plan of the port. It is to be carried out within 11 months and includes possible extension.The first stage will focus on compiling background information and assessing the current operational performance of the port. The output of the second phase that will focus on international and national traffic forecasting will be a technical and financial report on available alternative approaches for the management of physical and financial operations of the port. It will also include a recommended course of action. The master and the business plans and the respective implementation schedules are to be finalized in the third phase.The project is funded by EU’s Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilization (CARDS) program for Albania for 2004 under which it will get 58.5 million euro in assistance.The port of Durres lies on the western end of pan-European transport Corridor VIII which links the Adriatic and Ionian coasts with the Black Sea coast, crossing Albania, landlocked Macedonia and Bulgaria.It is handling some 80% of the passengers and goods flowing through the Albania’s four seaports. Last year, it handled 3.1 million tones of cargo and 703,344 passengers.The port’s existing master plan, drafted in 1994, envisages a complete overhaul of the port’s infrastructure and superstructure, building a new passenger terminal, rebuilding quays and introducing European Union standards to the entire port infrastructure.