MOSCOW AS PORT OF FIVE SEAS

Evening Star, Issue 22687, 29 June 1937, Page 11

MOSCOW AS PORT OF FIVE SEAS

HEW VOLGA GAMAL The Moscow-Volga Canal, which wa* opened recently, is the outstanding engineering feat of the Soviet Second Five-year Plan, A flotilla of seven newly-constructed canal _ steamships named after Joseph Stalin, Molotov, Kalinin, Voroshilov, and other leaders, traversed! the entire length of the canal and docked in the Moscow Harbour, lined by cheering crowds. A more ambitious undertaking by y far than the famous Dneiperstroi power development or the Baltic-White Sea Canal, the Moscow-Volga Canal waa four years in construction, and its official opening marks the completion of the second major link in the huge waterway system, which before the end of the Third) Five-year Plan will make the Red capital the port of five seas: the White, Baltic, Caspian, Azov, and the Black Sea. The new canal connects _ the Volga and Moscow rivers, furthering the development of freight and passenger traffic on inland water routes, which it considerably shortens, increasing Moscow’s water supply, now inadequate, to 600 litres daily per capita, and raising the level of the Moscow River and its tributaries, which until now have been scarcely navigable. During the course of construction, 203 settlements with 40,000 buildings were moved from the route of the canal, and the inhabitants of these towns and villages established in new. centres. CROSSING A HILL. . , The most difficult part of the entire construction was the task of raising the Volga waters over a hill, nearly ]2oft high which separated the Volga from the Moscow River; this was accomplished by the construction of locks and pump stations Five one-cham-ber locks form a stairway on which ships are raised 25ft for each of the locks. Then, approaching the Moscow River, two double-chambered locks with chambers 300yds long, lower the ships to the level of the Moscow. The canal crosses railway lines four times and meets highways en route eight times. Twenty million trees and shrubs and 18 acres of flower beds are being laid out along the canal. A new fleet of ooats is under construction to supplement the existing three-deck passenger ships and barges. Fifty motor ships will operate on tho six passenger lines for suburban and intercity express service. A number of freighters, with a total carrying capacity of 65,000 tons, and 15 tugs and auxiliary ships are 'also being built for canal service.