A new 430-mile canal is being planned to connect two seas, projected to cost £4.7bn and take ten years to build.
The Eurasia Canal from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea is a proposed as a new shipping route between Europe and west Asia.
There are existing canals connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean but none across Russia, Georgia or Azerbaijan to the Caspian Sea.
It is intended to provide a shorter route for shipping than the existing Volga–Don Canal.
If built, the nearly 430-mile Eurasia Canal would be four times longer than the Suez Canal and eight times longer than the Panama Canal.
The route usually proposed is along the lowest ground line of the Kuma-Manuch Depression in southwest Russia, considered a natural boundary between Asia and Europe.
The Kuma-Manych depression area is quite arid, with annual precipitation no more than 300mm. To operate the shipping canal with locks, a significant additional supply of freshwater would be required.
The Soviet government built part of the Manych Canal in the 1930s but construction was suspended a third of the way through, following the outbreak of the Second World War.
After the war, the deeper Volga-Don Canal was built and existing demand for freight transport did not justify a second canal between the Caspian and Black Seas.
Interest in the canal is growing due to ever-increasing cargo traffic between Asia and Europe as well as the inadequacy of Volga-Don Canal’s facilities for handling cargo flow.
A study by the Central Research Institute of Economy and Water Transport Exploitation in Russia predicted that there would be more growth in freight transportation demand and a significant amount of this can be redirected to the canal.
