Tanzania: Marine Transport Drive Picks Pace

By Abela Msikula

THE government has continued to record considerable achievements in its resolve to improve marine transport in the country after another modern ferry - 'MV Chato II Hapa Kazi Tu'- was commissioned to

the State ready to offer services on Lake Victoria on Wednesday.

The government received the new ferry from the contractor yesterday, a development which came barely a day after Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa inaugurated another vessel in Lake Nyasa, called MV Mbeya II. Chief Government Spokesperson Dr Hassan Abbasi posted on his Instagram page yesterday about the reception of the MV Chato, worth 3.1bn/-, with the capacity to carry 200 passengers and 20 cars, all totaling 100 tonnes.

The new ferry would be plying between Chato-Mharamba- Nkome and neighbouring islands including Senga, Bukondo and Izumacheli. When launching MV Mbeya II, on Tuesday, Prime Minister Majaliwa called on Tanzanians to exploit economic opportunities brought by the marine transportation networks.

It should be noted that the government has also revived two cargo ships in Lake Nyasa to tap business potential in the area, including attracting trade from the neighbouring countries of Malawi and some parts of Zambia and Mozambique.

Premier Majaliwa expressed optimism that the inception of MV Mbeya II, would go a long way towards opening up available economic opportunities within the southern highlands zone and connecting the country to neighbouring markets.

The vessel, which has capacity of carrying 300 passengers and 200 tonnes of cargo is expected to address transport woes to residents along the lake's shoreline in Mbeya, Njombe and Ruvuma regions and the neighbouring countries of Malawi and Mozambique.

"Tanzania is surrounded by eight countries which rely on getting various products from it, therefore, use this opportunity of having this new vessel to do business," PM appealed. Since President Magufuli assumed the highest office in 2015, one of the tasks he vowed to undertake was to revive marine transport in all major water bodies in the country.

To live up to his promise President Magufuli started implementing several projects in Lake Victoria, all of which target to facilitate transport in the Lake, including linking Tanzania with the neighbouring countries of Uganda and Kenya.

To create modern marine transport sustainability the government is currently building a Slipway, also known as Shipyard Facility, at Mwanza South Port. The Slipway is meant to provide a safe location for mega ship building and servicing.

The government saw it necessary to have a facility after it decided to revive MV Victoria, including building a new mega ship- MV Mwanza-Hapa Kazi Tu- to replace the ill-fated MV Bukoba.

The new Ship-yard facility is currently used for construction of MV Mwanza and after completion of the project the facility will be used for ship maintenance, including leasing to clients from the nearby countries in building mega ships or maintenance, bringing foreign currency to the country.

Under the administration of Marine Services Company Limited (MSCL), the government resolved to revive all vessels that stopped operations due to wear out. The resolve includes building new vessels in all major water bodies. To-date, several ships have been revived including MV Butiama and New MV Victoria are operating, plying between Mwanza and Bukoba via Kemondo, Mwanza and Nansio.

Following allocation of funds in the 2020/21 financial year the government is planning to come implement a total of nine development projects in Lake Victoria and Tanganyika and in the Indian Ocean.

The projects involve construction of a new wagon ferry in Lake Victoria that will be having a carrying capacity of 3,000 tonnes, major rehabilitation of the tug for rescue and towing operations christened MT Ukerewe and a tanker named MT Nyangumi.

Other projects in Lake Tanganyika will include the construction of one multipurpose ship with the capacity of carrying 600 passengers and 400 tonnes of cargo, construction of 4,000 tonne -cargo ship and major rehabilitation of MV Liemba and MT Sangara.

Further, the four projects in Lake Tanganyika are all planned to exploit the existing potentials along the lake particularly in serving the great market of DRC, Burundi and Zambia. According to MSCL officials, the Company plans to extend its operations from the great lakes region to the Indian Ocean by serving ports of Dar es Salaam, Pemba, Tanga, Mtwara, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Comoro, Madagascar and Seychelles