Supplemented extension programme of the Saaremaa Harbour is approved

Last week, the Environmental Board approved the supplemented programme for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of extending the Saaremaa Harbour located in Mustjala Rural Municipality.

On 26 September, the architect’s office OÜ K. Enno Arhitektuuribüroo submitted to the Environmental Board the strategic environmental assessment programme regarding extension of the Saaremaa Harbour, together with suggestions and counter-arguments submitted to the programme and explanations provided thereto. The Environmental Board has found the programme, its proceeding and the involved experts to be conformant; the programme has also been corrected according to the comments received from the Environmental Board earlier.

According to earlier information, the strategic environmental assessment programme is necessary so that the local government could proceed with a detailed plan of the harbour, the purpose of the detailed plan being the assigning of a building right for constructing industrial buildings and warehouses in the territory of the deep-water harbour and for establishing roads and utilities, allowing for the harbour to handle mixed goods and bulk goods and to serve cargo vessels in addition to passenger vessels.

In June last year, AS Tallinna Sadam submitted to the Mustjala Rural Municipality Government a petition for initiating a new detailed plan for the immediate vicinity of the immovable properties of Valla tee and Ninase, the parking and fuelling facilities of the Saaremaa Harbour, the Tamme area and the harbour itself, in order to assign a building right, change the stated purpose and establish new land plots. The size of the plan area is 24 hectares.

The Port of Tallinn intends to turn the Saaremaa Harbour into a passenger and cargo port able to handle 100,000-300,000 tonnes of bulk goods per year. The initial purpose of the Saaremaa Harbour was to serve only visiting cruise ships, but the planning of the harbour took also into account the possibility of receiving RORO type vessels as well – the berth has a wide ramp with high load-bearing capacity.

Opening the Saaremaa Harbour for cargo vessels would also create an opportunity for 250 new jobs in Saaremaa.