Project No. and Name:
Preventing Incidents and Accidents for Safer Ships in the Oceans (PICASSO)
Entity:
Transport Malta (TM)
Total Project Amount:
€3,848,834; Budget allocated to Transport Malta amount to €356,334 with a co-funding rate of 50%
Project Details:
The Ports and Yachting Directorate within TM is one of the leading partners in the Picasso Project that is aimed to improve maritime safety through training and the development of new technologies. The project, co-funded by the European Commission Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), brings together 14 partners from 9 different countries namely: Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, and UK.
The project was successfully completed in June 2018.
PICASSO was organized in 4 core activities:
– On board safe, efficient, and secure operations
– On shore safety and security
– Event Management
– Training and human factors
The first three activities addressed the issues arising in:
The final activity in its turn was focused on training and human factors and addressed the tools developed and results achieved in activities 1 to 3. Activity 4 was a horizontal activity that embraces all the aspects touched upon by the other activities.
The project interconnected needs and concerns of 4 European transport Core Corridors: the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor, the Mediterranean corridor; the Orient/East-Med corridor; and the Atlantic corridor. Through this project the Maltese Transport Authority and other partners studied alternative solutions to deal with mass evacuations. To this effect the Ports and Yachting Directorate organised a simulation of an incident on a cruise liner at sea which was followed with a mass evacuation that was carried out in the Port of Valetta. The exercise which was held during Malta’s EU presidency provided emergency planners the opportunity to test the port emergency response and best practices in case of such accidents.
Transport Malta is involved in activities related to offshore safety and security. The main objective of the activity held in Malta was to test port evacuation tools and solutions concerning on shore safety and security conditions in the situation of the port of Valletta. A main thrust in this activity was the organisation of a mass evacuation exercise from a passenger ship. The activity was held during the 2017 Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. In organising this event Transport Authority will be collaborating with the Port of Dover of UK, the Valencia Port Foundation of Spain and other local stake holders such as the Civil Protection, Armed Forces of Malta, Health, Red Cross and Police Authorities.
The Port of Valletta was chosen as it presents several challenges that are somewhat like those found in other major European ports. The Sea Traffic to and from the Maltese ports has increased considerably as did the size of passenger ships and number of passengers using port facilities which led to the creation of managing constraints. This is further impeded by the fact that the Grand harbour is in a high-density populated area, which in an event of emergency would present several difficulties regarding the coordination of urban transports system and emergency teams. The Malta activity will bring together different stakeholders will provide an opportunity where risks related with the safety and security of our ports will be analysed and elaborate plans will be tested.
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