Govt vows to solve Venice cruise ship problem after crash

(ANSA) - Rome, June 3 - Transport and Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli has said the government is close to finding a solution to the problems caused by cruise ships in Venice after a dramatic crash on Sunday.
    The out-of-control MSC Opera crashed into a tourist barge and a wharf on the Giudecca Canal in an incident in which four people were injured.
    The accident has strengthened calls for cruise ships to be banned from Venice's central canals because of the dangers they pose, as we as the pollution they emit and the damage they do to the city's structures and the ecosystem of its lagoon.
    "We have been working with utmost resolution for months to resolve a problem that has been left to rot for too many years," Toninelli said in an interview published in Monday's edition of La Stampa. "There are institutional talks that are moving forward and an encounter is already scheduled with other ministers concerned to reach a definitive solution, without shortcuts, that covers the tourist economy and environmental protection".
    He said that "we are in favour" of stopping big ships docking in the centre of the city.
    "But first it is necessary to find the alternatives, the definitive one and the provisional one, so that Venice does not lose cruise tourism," he added. "After years of stalling, we are close to a solution that is capable of finally holding together all the interests on the field. "The project will be chosen by the end of June".