SESSION ON DANUBE-SAVA CHANNEL CONSTRUCTION TAKES PLACE IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, May 22 (Hina) - Centre for the construction of the Danube- Sava channel on Wednesday held a session to mark the beginning of the realization of a project of constructing the channel from Vukovar to Samac (eastern Croatia). The Croatian government made the decision about the construction of the channel in 1991. The project is to begin next year and will cost some US $250 million. The construction works are to last five years, Croatian Reconstruction and Development Minister Jure Radic said at the session. #L# The channel is to be 61 kilometres long, 50 metres wide at its narrowest points and 6 to 8 metres deep. A section of 8 kilometres of the stretch where the channel is to be constructed is in the still occupied area. Explaining the advantages Croatia could have by realizing the two centuries old project, Radic said that the channel would shorten the naval path between ports on the Sava river and ports in Hungary and Austria some 400 kilometres. The channel would enable the irrigation and development of the area through which it is to run, Radic said. The idea of constructing the Danube-Sava channel was first mentioned in 1737. Some 60 years later, blueprints were drawn for a 87 kilometres long channel from Vukovar to Samac. The modern project was drafted in 1964 for the first time and the channel was primarily regarded as a naval passage, but ideas of drainage and irrigation of agricultural land were mentioned as well. A study of the naval passage from 1997 meditated the construction of hydroelectric power plants, but irrigation was overlooked. Only did a plan from 1985 treat it as a multi-purpose channel. A group of experts from the Mathematics, Forestry and Construction Faculties in Zagreb headed by Croatian Water Management experts are making rounds of the area to estimate possible impacts the channel could have on the environment. (hina) lm jn 221435 MET may 96