Vakarų Baltijos Laivų Statykla to build a ferry for Smiltynės Perkėla shipping company
BLRT Grupp’s subsidiary won an open international tender
Vakarų Baltijos Laivų Statykla won an open international tender for construction of a new cargo-passenger ferry announced by the Smiltynės Perkėla shipping company. On May 8, a construction contract was solemnly signed, BLRT Grupp says in a press release.
60 meters long and 14 meters wide ferry can carry up to 1000 passengers or at least 40 cars and 600 passengers, or 8 trucks weighing up to 44 tons each. Ferry will have a steel hull and aluminium deck superstructure. The vessel will be equipped with four loading ramps, and its power plants will operate on diesel fuel. The Western Baltic Engineering, another subsidiary company of the Group, will do engineering.
“Constantly growing customer traffic proves that Smiltynės Perkėla activity is vital and necessary. To enhance our technological capacity and to improve the quality of provided services we initiated an international open tender for construction of a new ferry. We are pleased that this vessel will be built by the Klaipėda company, which employ a lot of city residents, and I am absolutely sure that most of them take advantage of the services rendered by our company,” said Mindaugas Čiakas, CEO, Smiltynės Perkėla.
“Since our inception we have built about 30 different ferries, but this project will be both interesting and special. This ferry is not a mass production, but construction according to the project developed for Smiltynės perkėla, taking into account its vision of the company and passengers’ needs,” said Vitalij Frolov, Director, Vakarų Baltijos Laivų Statykla.
New ferry should be constructed and ready for operation no later than within one year and two months from the date of entry of the contract into force. The ferry should ensure uninterrupted, coordinated and safe connection between the Klaipėda mainland and Smiltynė. Throughout the year, more than 2 million passengers enjoy this service and 700 thousand vehicles are ferried.
