AREQUIPA, Peru – The authorities of the Cuban regime began dredging this weekend in the port of Batabanó, in Mayabeque, which will eventually restore transportation to/from the Isle of Youth, paralyzed for almost two weeks.
According to projection Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, Minister of Transportation in Cuba, a dredger working on a project in the port of La Coloma, in the south of Pinar del Río, was “urgently” reassigned to the port of Batabanó to dredge the two critical points in the access channel to the dock and facilitate the entry of the Perseverancia ferry, in charge of maritime transportation of passengers with the Isle of Youth.
“To do this, it is necessary to extract about 2,000 cubic meters in about 5 days of work, which constitutes the first stage of the project,” said the owner.
Likewise, he explained that the work will be divided into two other stages, the second will last two months (until January) and will focus on dredging about 22,000 cubic meters, which will facilitate access to the docking box and the dock. maneuver. Then, the priorities and how to advance in the third stage and its deadlines in 2025 will be evaluated.
“It would aim to carry out dredging to the levels approved in the initial project, which would restore all the capacities of the port of Batabanó,” added Rodríguez Dávila.
The minister also announced that work will be done to turn La Coloma into an alternative port for passenger transportation with the Isle of Youth.
The dredge will extract the material from the seabed, transporting it through a plastic pipe to a designated dumping point. The machinery will suck the sediment deposited at the bottom, which will be transferred through the pipes that were placed and will finish the process with the release of that sediment in the chosen area.
After celebrating the return of the Perseverancia ferry from Batabanó to Nueva Gerona on November 10, the Cuban regime stopped the usual operations of this vessel, the only one that currently offers maritime passenger transportation services between the two destinations.
After the interruption, the special municipality has been isolated from the rest of the Cuban archipelago. The problem, as authorities warned of the Island, will remain indefinitely “until further notice” and its solution would depend on dredging in the port of Batabanó.
“Without a doubt it constitutes one of the main concerns not only of the pine trees but also of the highest local authorities because the economic development of the Isle of Youth largely depends on this ‘highway’,” says the state Victoria Newspaper.
In order to serve passengers with greater travel urgency, Rodríguez Dávila mentioned last week that some flights have been carried out in a small plane of the Revolutionary Armed Forceswhich would continue to “contribute to alleviating this situation.”
