The Albanian Development Fund in the framework of the Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro, hosted the launch event of the thematic project ALMONIT-MTC on 21 November 2019, at Xheko Imperial Hotel in Tirana.
The aim of “ALMONIT-MTC Albania, Montenegro, Italy Multimodal Transport Connectivity” is to establish a long-term partnership between stakeholders through multimodal inland water and maritime transport connections.
The improvement of existing transport connections in the region aims to develop sustainable cross-border cooperation in the area where the project is implemented. In Albania this is the first intervention in the field of lake transport, as the country has only the experience of the Lake Fierza-Koman.
The Albanian Development Fund is Lead Partner in this project and participating partners are: Regione Puglia (IT), Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs of Montenegro, Regione Molise (IT). Associated partners are: the municipality of Bar (Montenegro) and the municipality of Shkodra (Albania)
The project will cover the following area: both sides of the Adriatic-Ionian Sea between Italy, Albania and Montenegro; both sides of Shkodra Lake and Buna River between Albania and Montenegro.
Currently this area has low accessibility and is characterized by low interaction transport systems. This affects negatively internal and regional links.
In this context, the ALMONIT-MTC project aims to achieve the following results:
- A multimodal lake transport that will connect Albania with Montenegro on Lake Shkodra - specifically the Port of Virpazar with the relevant harbor in Shkodra;
- Four multimodal maritime transport that will connect Italy, Albania and Montenegro - more specifically this maritime transport will operate in Port of Bar (IT), Port of Bar (Montenegro), Port of Shengjin (AL), Port of Termoli (Molise, IT).
The direct beneficiaries are citizens and local public authorities. The latter will benefit from socio-economic interaction, as well as increased skills and capacities in asset management. The implementation period of this project is 37 months.