Via Donau

Via Donau was founded in January 2005 by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (bmvit). The company was formed by the merger of via donau – Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH für Telematik und Donauschifffahrt, Österreichische Donau-Betriebs AG, Österreichische Donau-Technik GmbH and the privatized organisation of the Waterways Authority.            

Via Donau is a modern waterway management company executing sovereign functions on behalf of the Austrian government in the field of waterways and inland navigation. In addition to the tasks of federal waterway administration and transport development, viadonau carries out pioneering work by planning and managing the Integrated River Engineering Project to the east of Vienna as well as operating a navigation information system called Danube River Information Services (DoRIS). Also on behalf of the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, viadonau runs the Technical Secretariat for the National Action Plan on Danube Navigation as well as the European Danube Region Strategy (Priority Area 1a Inland waterways). Additionally, in cooperation with both national and international partners, via donau implements innovative projects designed to intensify waterway transport. Resulting from its international projects and tasks, viadonau has built up close contacts and working relationships with waterway administrations, promotion offices, the inland waterway sector as well as Ministries of Transport across Europe.

In PROMINENT, the main activities of viadonau are: lead of WP1 (state of play), SWP2.3 (energy-efficient navigation), SWP6.1 (pilot implementation review), and SWP6.4 (policy recommendations and draft implementation roadmap), as well as provision of Danube specific contributions to all other work packages of the project with the exception of WP3 (certification, monitoring, and enforcement).