On August 9, according to information from Inland Waterway Management and Maintenance Joint Stock Company No. 10, the management unit of the Nghia Hung canal lock, an incident occurred with the tow cable of the lock gate.
At 11:30 am on the same day, during the operation, the tow cable of the lock gate broke. Meanwhile, there were two vessels in the lock chamber that could not be moved outside.
Immediately after discovering this incident, the management unit of the Nghia Hung canal temporarily halted the operation of the lock to fix the oil leak from the gearbox of the water balance valve at the Dau River end and developed a recovery plan. At the same time, the lock management unit also advised vessel owners still navigating the route to adjust their itineraries while they fix the problem.
The lock is the most valuable item of the Nghia Hung canal. The lock gate is made of steel, weighing 87 tons, with a flat, horizontally-pulled structure, moving on a system of rails, cables, and electric winches. There are also two water regulation valves on the lock gate. Photo: VOV
More than a year ago, on July 25, 2023, the Ministry of Transport officially opened the National Inland Waterway Route – a cluster of canal works connecting the Dau and Ninh Co rivers (called the Nghia Hung canal), located in Nghia Hung district, Nam Dinh province.
This cluster of works belongs to the North Delta Transport Development Project (WB6 Project), which was officially inaugurated on November 19, 2020. The canal has a total investment of 107.19 million USD, of which 78.74 million USD is ODA loan capital from the World Bank and 28.45 million USD is the counterpart capital of the Vietnamese government.
After the completion of the cluster of works connecting the Dau and Ninh Co rivers, the Ministry of Transport named the cluster of works “Nghia Hung Canal” and “Nghia Hung Lock.”
A ship navigating through the Nghia Hung canal. The passage of ships through this canal significantly shortens the inland waterway route from the Ninh Phuc port cluster to the ports of Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, or the Southern Coastal provinces. Photo: TP
The Nghia Hung lock is 179 meters long, 17 meters wide, and 10.5 meters high, with a reinforced concrete structure, a U-shaped wall with two ship waiting areas. The maximum load of ships passing through this lock is 3,000 tons. Each canal passage can accommodate three ships, depending on their size and weight.
After more than a year of operation, the Nghia Hung canal has served thousands of cargo ships, oil tankers, coal carriers, etc., helping to shorten travel time and facilitating convenient business and trade in neighboring areas.
In reality, when passing through the Nghia Hung canal, large cargo ships save 8 hours of travel time, equivalent to a cost of about VND 20 million.
