HAIKOU, October 11. /TASS/. The ferry crossing time across the strait separating mainland of China from the Island of Hainan will be halved by the end of 2019, the Hainan Association of enterprises of modern services sector reported.
According to data published on the organization’s official page on WeChat, after the throughput has been increased, it will take an hour to cross the strait. The marinas in the northern and southern parts of the strait will accelerate the annual transportation of over 17,2 million passengers and 3,2 million vehicles. “Thus, the largest ferry service in the world will be created,” a representative of the Zhanjiang city administration pointed out.
According to the Hainan Daily, the construction of marinas in the port of Xuzhou (Guangdong Province), separated from the island by the 20 km wide Hainan Strait, has already been completed. About 2,000 workers are building new terminals currently.
The new transport complex consists of 16 marinas, each of which can receive two vessels with a displacement of 5,000 tonnes: one for the transportation of passengers and ordinary goods, and the other — for special cargoes.
Ferry is the only means of transportion available across the Hainan Strait, which is from 20 to 40 km wide and has a maximum depth of 120 m. Earlier, the issue of building a bridge in that area was considered, however, due to storms and typhoons disrupting the island’s regular transport system with the mainland, such a project was deemed unacceptable for safety reasons. At the same time, work is already underway on the construction of a 24 km long underwater tunnel at a depth of 300 meters, which may become the longest in the world.