Equipment arrival signals berths upgrade take off

MAUREEN ODUNGA

EQUIPMENT for deepening and strengthening of berths at the port through the Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project have arrived ready for construction work by mid November.

With the planned expansion and upgrade of the port’s berths one to seven, the capacity is expected to surge to 28 million tonnes from the present 18 million tonnes.

The Acting Port Manager of the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), Mr Freddy Liundi confirmed in Dar es Salaam yesterday of having received the first batch of five large equipment.

Mr Liundi named the equipment as five ships, three of which were used to carry the construction tools and the other two will be used to dig deep into the sea.

“Upon completion of the upgrading project, the harbour will be in a position to handle larger ships of up to 320 metres, which can carry between 6,000 and 8,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from the maximum capacity of 4,000 TEUs by smaller ships of 240 to 280 metres currently docking at the port,” said Mr Liundi.

He pointed out that the coming of larger ocean vessels will reduce unit cost due to economies of scale and at the same time reduce the dwell time that ships have been using at the harbour.

He further revealed that the next batch will include equipment comprising of tugs and barges set to arrive in the next 10 days from (today) yesterday.

Mr Liundi said the current berth stands at around 7 metres to 10.5 metres, and the anticipated depth of 15.5 meters is bound to bring about major changes to the development of the country.

According to the Acting Port Manager, the project was to take 36 months as per the contract, but when President John Magufuli was laying the foundation stone in July this year, he directed the contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company, to complete the project in 30 months.

The Project Engineer, Anastazia Saledi said the project is going to cost 336.6m/-.