The North Adriatic Sea Port Authority – Ports of Venice and Chioggia – together with the Harbourmasters of Venice and Chioggia, has delivered to the pilots of the ports 3 new navigation aid units (Pilot Portable Units – PPUs – made up of antennas, software, laptops and tablets).

These new units indicate and locate vessels’ position with extreme precision and in real-time, besides forecasting their position in the immediate seconds following the manoeuvre. Therefore, pilots will carry out their activities correctly, being provided in advance by very accurate data related to vessel’s performances, thanks to the use of high-precision high technologies maps specifically created to the functionality of these new devices.

The delivery was attended by the President of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority Fulvio Lino DI BLASIO, the Rear Adm (UH) Piero PELLIZZARI Italian Coast Guard, Maritime Director of Veneto Region – Venice Harbourmaster, Cap. Dario Riccobene – Harbourmaster of Chioggia, Venice Chief Pilot Luigi Mennella and Chioggia Pilot Giuseppe Morello.

Image Credits: adnkronos.com

The initiative – 130.000 euros – is led by the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority and entirely funded by the Cross-border Cooperation Program INTERREG Italy-Croatia 2014-2020 as a part of INTESA project – Improving maritime Transport Efficiency and Safety in the Adriatic “. INTESA project responds to a wider strategy that sees the relevant cooperation among Port Authority and Harbourmaster for collecting, exchanging and integrating systems and data for the definition of navigation aids.

In these framework INTESA project means to standardize and integrate the monitoring and management procedures of the entire maritime transport process in the Adriatic Sea, to make it more efficient and safe through the cooperation between Italy and Croatia and the main ports authorities and harbourmasters of the Adriatic Sea (together in Venice also Trieste, Ravenna, Ancona, Bari, Rijeka, Ploce and Split).

“The nautical accessibility of the Venetian Ports – says President Di Blasio – represents a priority we are dealing with at a cross-level, both at an operational level and involving innovation and digitization, in line with the priorities of the Ministry for Infrastructures and Sustainable Mobility. Thanks to the INTESA Project, we are delivering high-tech systems to our pilots, representing the most advanced navigation instruments at the moment and effectively improving the accessibility of the Ports of Venice and Chioggia. These units strengthen the data sharing network between the Ports of the North Adriatic Sea, according to national priorities and EU objectives of a more connected, greener and low carbon emissions Europe.

This initiative proves the ongoing convergence strategy between the Authorities of the North Adriatic Sea, also represented by the NAPA – North Adriatic Sea Port Association. Our operational plan will certainly include initiatives like INTESA project: based on a network and involving innovation and new technologies”

In the same way, Admiral Piero Pellizzari expresses his satisfaction: “We get to an important point to improve the accessibility of our ports; accessibility is a central theme, and in Venice we are dealing with it also through the initiatives direclty promoted by the Ministry for Infrastructures and Sustainable Mobility. There are many interventions that we can do to improve accessibility in Venice and Chioggia and the entire logistics and port cluster is “pushing” to get to a 24-hour regulated port. As Harbourmasters we are taking the challenge and our commitment is full: today, the delivery of these devices improves both port safety and efficiency by providing additional assistance to vessels and pilots according to international best practices. ”

The Chief Pilot of the Port of Venice Luigi Mennella and the Pilot of the Port of Chioggia Giuseppe Morello stressed the usefulness of the new instruments representing for Venice important device to know the right position o vessels and for Chioggia an additional aid for specific manoeuvres.

In 2020 INTESA project was recognized as FLAGSHIP PROJECT by the European macro strategy EUSAIR, within the priority Adriatic-Ionian Multimodal Corridors which addresses the challenge/need of macro-regional importance to develop an interconnected and integrated transport system in the Adriatic-Ionian region and aims to strengthen North-South and East-West relations through the identification of multimodal corridors alongside the TEN-T network.