Poland has unveiled a plan to construct a $246m canal that would allow ships to save time with port calls in the Baltic Sea.

The 1.3km waterway will cut across the Vistula Spit, a strip of land separating the open water of Gdansk Bay from the Vistula lagoon.

The only way in to the lagoon and the Polish port of Elblag is through the Strait of Baltiysk in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad further north.