RINA certifies Turkmenistan Port

Genoa - A new project is now taking shape on the ancient Silk Road, which once linked East Asia and Europe. In the next two years, a cutting edge port will be created about 500km from Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, in a bay protected by the Gulf of Turkmenbashi. The project is being driven by Turkmenistan’s State Service of Maritime and River Transportation. The $1.5 billion project will be built according to the best schemes for environmental sustainability (Green Port standards), which guarantee the protection of the environment both on land and sea, not to mention sustainable energy and waste management for the new large infrastructure. RINA Services was chosen by the construction company, Gap İnşaat, for the certification of a third of the entire project, on the basis of a three-year contract which will employ a team of almost 50 experts. More specifically, RINA Services will carry out mainly two large-scale activities: the verification of the design project and the in situ inspection of the construction of the port to verify conformity with the design documents.

Michele Francioni, who is the C.E.O. of RINA Services, pointed out that, “Besides its recognised independence as a certifier, RINA Services was chosen for its ability to offer integrated services in various sectors, including the maritime sector, construction, infrastructure and project management. Turkmenistan is now an important strategic player from a geographical point of view, and RINA Services has had a presence there for some time with a deeply rooted local organisation. We have selected a dedicated team in order to serve this ambitious project as best we can.” This project will give Turkmenistan (which has the second largest natural gas deposit in the world, not to mention oil reserves that are estimated at about 12 billion tonnes) a port that can offer faster links between Europe and Asia with its new intermodal system, facilitating trade with Iran, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan, in addition to Azerbaijan and Russia. The entire port project consists of a shipyard for naval construction and repair, a RORO and ROPAX terminal, a tri-modal container terminal, a general cargo terminal, a dry bulk terminal, a polypropylene terminal and a ferry terminal rail link. The work should be completed by 2017. It is estimated that 25 million tonnes of freight traffic will pass through the port by 2020.