Last April 5th the project for the expansion of Corralejo’s Harbour was presented in the Municipal Auditorium. According to the statistics of the Canary Island Government, this harbour gets the largest number of visitors in all the islands, even outnumbering those in Playa Blanca, Morro Jable and Agaete.
The figures in the year 2013 record 912.174 passengers (853.886 through regular line and 58.288 on day trips) and 212.227 vehicles (167.078 cars and 45.149 industrial vehicles)
The conditions of this harbour at present do not fulfill the present demand, as there isn’t enough room for all the boats that need it —there is a long waiting list of boats looking for berth—, it lacks appropriate lighting and a petrol station where boats can refuel, with all the risks that transporting jerry cans with fuel entails.
Moreover, it doesn’t count on a dry-dock to clean and repair the boats.
It seems that all these deficiencies will be sorted out by the implementation of this project by the “Plan de puertos de la Comunidad Autónoma”, which represents a running cost of 40 million Euros and that the Canary Island Government has declared as of exceptional public interest.
The aim is to provide Corralejo with a large berth marina living up to expectations, so that water and leisure activities can be enhanced, such as boat trips to Lanzarote or to the islet of Lobos, while modernizing the facilities for traditional fisheries. All this will mean a new attraction to some visitors looking for a different tourism —such as water tourism— instead of the mass sun and beach tourism.
Among the reforms to be implemented at Corralejo’s Harbour we must highlight the restoration of berths for the ships that communicate our island to the neighbour Lanzarote (Playa Blanca) and also very important to highlight the creation of a new additional marina, which will be located to the North of the present harbour.
The environmental impact assessment has taken particular care of the design of the new dock so as not to interfere with the wonderful views of the islet of Lobos and Lanzarote, paying maximum respect for the surrounding landscape.
The expansion, in figures, will mean 38.900m2 of earth surface, that added to the existing ones will become 68.900m2, and the expansion in the surface of sheltered water will reach 68.900m2, 14.000m2 of which will be developed as commercial harbour, 55.700m2 as marina (with 767 berths) and 125.000m2 as outer dock.
The license of the petrol station has been awarded, for 15 years, to Domofuture Green Alliance, which will need an estimated capital outlay of 750.000€ and will have to supply fuel to fishermen at subsidised prices plus one cent, and to recreational boats at the stipulated price by the “Ley de Tasas del Gobierno de Canarias” plus two cents of Euro.
This project was registered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment on 12th August 2013, after being approved in the environmental impact statement on the 27th May by the Commission on Land management and Environment in the Canary Islands— a long process whose study considered 15 different alternatives and institutional environmental queries—and it was drawn up by the consulting company Viatrio Ingenieros S.L.
Right now it’s awaiting to be passed and assigned in the Matitine-Terrestrial public Domain.
FuerteCharter Team.