In mid-October of last year, Astilleros GONDAN was awarded a contract for the construction of 10 electric ferries for the Portuguese passenger river transport operator Transtejo – Transportes Tejo, SA The contract, signed last January, has received the approval from the Portuguese Court of Accounts, and the shipyard is preparing to begin construction of the vessels in the coming days.
The 40-meter-long ferries will be powered entirely by electricity. The Portuguese shipping company is thus committed to an environmentally sustainable fleet, unique in the world. The design of these vessels is based on a catamaran-type hull specifically optimized to make the most of the almost 2MWh of electrical energy stored in its batteries, with an extremely silent operation and without CO2 emissions. With a capacity for about 540 passengers, it is expected to transport about 19 million people each year on the Tagus River, between the banks of Lisbon and the south of the Lusitanian capital.
GONDAN Shipyards was selected after an international public tender in October 2020 where not only economic aspects were weighed, but the shipyard’s technical capacity was also essential; That allowed him to present an innovative and extremely efficient proposal that would respond to the requirements demanded by the Portuguese shipowner.
Being a construction program of 10 vessels, GONDAN’s fiber division achieves a stable workload until 2024, which, added to the recent contracting of 2 wind vessels to be built in steel hulls, its facilities in Figueras, allow the company face 2021 with optimism and a solid financial position. As part of its policy of reinvestment and continuous improvement, GONDAN is in a position to face in the near future its plan to expand and improve the productivity of several of its centres in Castropol; with the consequent positive impact on job creation and revitalization of economic activity in the region.
