Eurasia Canal

The option involving the construction of six low-rise locks on the eastern slope of the watershed can significantly reduce the volume of earthwork and lower by one-third the need for freshwater, which is precalculated as approximately 1.5 cubic km.

The Soviet government decided to construct the Manych Waterway connecting the Black and Caspian Seas via the Kuma-Manych Depression in May 1932.

The third, eastern, section, 150 km long, was intended as a free-flow navigable and irrigation canal (along the lower course of the Kuma) reaching a port on the Caspian coast.

The Russian government's interest in improvement of the waterways between the Caspian basin and that of the Azov and Black Seas – which may or may not involve the Eurasia Canal route – is due to the increasing volume of cargo traffic between the Volga-Caspian basin and European countries, as well as the inadequacy of existing facilities on the Volga–Don Canal for handling the expected cargo flows.

The proponents of the project refer to a study of freight shipping in southern Russia by the Central Research Institute of Economy and Water Transport Exploitation (Центральный научно-исследовательский институт экономики и эксплуатации водного транспорта (ЦНИИЭВТ), TsNIIEVT), a research center of Russia's Ministry of Transport.

[5] This study predicts significant growth in the demand for freight transportation, in particular for liquid cargoes, between the Caspian region and the ports of southern and central Europe.

The study also suggests that a significant amount of cargo shipped between the Asian countries and western Europe can be redirected to the canal as well.

President Nazarbayev stated that the canal would make Kazakhstan a maritime power and benefit many other Central Asian nations as well.

[9] The most probable technical parameters of the Eurasia Canal are: 6.5 m depth, 110 m width and more than 75 million tons per year of traffic capacity.