The study confirmed water corridor Danube – Odra – Elbe stands a chance19/10/2018|Press releasesThe water corridor project connecting the Danube, Odra and Elbe rivers is economically efficient in terms of transportation, water management, energy and recreational use. A connection between Danube and Odra received a better assessment, the Elbe branch of the corridor lowers the effectiveness of the entire project. Evaluating the benefits of an investment amounting up to CZK 582 billion, the feasibility study has confirmed this after two years of work. "The results of the economic assessment showed that opening a connection between Danube and Odra for navigation brings most benefits. The Elbe branch of the corridor reduces the effectiveness of the whole project due to very high investment costs of long navigation tunnels. The total investment costs of the project in the variant where all three rivers are connected amount to CZK 582 billion. In the variant connecting Danube with Odra the costs were estimated at CZK 281 billion," minister Dan Ťok describes the outcome of the feasibility study. Different variants of the water corridor, including the combination of only some branches, were assessed in the study. The project containing all three branches shows a positive economic effectiveness slightly above the limit set out by the effectiveness assessment methodology. The Risk Analysis showed that more project benefits would be complicated due to limited transportation capacity that would entail additional investment costs. The results confirmed that the project variant including the Elbe branch is risky. A connection between Danube and Odra got a much better mark. The study says that the construction of the water corridor is closely connected with projects which shall improve navigation on connecting rivers, i.e. Elbe, Odra and/or Váh. The study assumes that a certain level of navigation will be achieved, which is not the case at the moment. This will lead to investment costs of the provision of corresponding navigation class in these river sections, which the study does not foresee. An independent economic assessment and separate projects in Poland and Slovakia must be prepared for these connecting projects. The members of the Monitoring Committee, counting the representatives of different ministries, universities, regions, stakeholders and international representation of Slovakia and Poland, have been discussing the results of the study and economic assessment. The Central Commission of the Ministry of Transportation will also assess the material and the documents will be subject to a peer review across departments as well. Then the study will be submitted to the government for approval. The next steps, also including the EIA, will follow the government negotiations. The Ministry of Transport assigned the feasibility study for the Danube-Odra-Labe water corridor to check the economic effectiveness of this prospective new water route in terms of transportation, water management, energy and recreational function. The study was prepared in line with government decision of January 19, 2011 that inputs shall be prepared for a water corridor assessment and for the decision whether the corridor shall be kept it or removed from landscape protection. Work on the study commenced in July 2016.