Tanzania: U.S. $590 million Dar es Salaam Port upgrade works begin

Posted on : Tuesday , 28th April 2015

Dar es Salaam — Civil works have started on the $593 million upgrade of Dar es Salaam port involving financing by both bilateral and multilateral donors and overseen by TradeMark East Africa, the non-profit consultancy.

Philippe Dongier World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi said last week the event is happening at the right time when the World Bank together with the Tanzania government, the British Department of International Development (DfID) and TradeMark East Africa is preparing a substantive program to increase the capacity and efficiency of the port.

Last week saw the demolition of sheds two and three at the port and is part of the Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project (DMGP). This is expected to improve the physical capacity of infrastructure and operational efficiency.

The project directly supports Tanzania’s Big Results Now (BRN) program, part of Tanzania Vision 2025.

Through the Transport Laboratory, new improvements will help to unlock the potential of the Central Transport Corridor, namely from the Dar es Salaam Port to the western borders, through an integrated series of initiatives, and increase the capacity of Dar es Salaam.

Dongier said it also underlines the importance of Dar es Salaam for the economy of both Tanzania and its landlocked neighbours.

On completion port capacity will double to 28 million tonnes by 2020.

Dongier said the total cost is envisaged to be $596 million, including an IBRD Enclave loan of up to $400 million, the first of its kind in the Africa region, a prospective grant of $136 million from DFID (£85 million equivalent), and committed and pipeline support from TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) in the sum of $60 million (£38 million equivalent), excluding the complementary private investment in the port.

Modernizing and expanding Dar es Salaam Port will reduce ship’s dwell time from the current nine to10 days down to just five days by 2020.

Speaking on behalf of the Tanzania’s Minister for Transport Samuel Sitta, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Dr. Shaban Mwinjaka said DMGP is a Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) project which is a response to the BRN initiative. It is aimed at generating capacity to cater for the projected traffic growth at the Dar es Salaam port.

According to Mwinjaka, “We have already signed Memorandum of Understanding with governments of Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo, which have pledged to use Dar es Salaam Port for their imports and exports,” Dr Mwinjaka said.

He urged the private sector to join forces in implementing the project which also involves modernization of the central railway line and reduction of transit bottlenecks..

David Stanton, TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) Director General said the support under phase one of the DMGP project focuses on enhancing Dar es Salaam port’s spatial efficiency through demolition and relocation of sheds 2 to 7, upgrading of roads and gates to introduce a single way traffic flow system at the port, improving productivity and operational processes, and carrying our preparatory surveys and studies for phase two.

“The second phase of the DMGP project funded by the World Bank and DfID aims at strengthening and modernization the dredging and berths to allow the handling of bigger vessels to improve the port’s competitiveness in the global maritime industry,” he said.

According to Stanton, phase 1 is expected to increase Dar port’s throughput to 18 million tonnes by 2016/2017 from 12.1 million in 2012/2013 whereas phase 2 will further increase throughput capacity to 28 million tonnes.

The acting Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) Director General, Awadh Masawe said efficiency at the country’s major sea gateway has continued to improve under BRN. He said the cargo handled last year peaked over 14 million metric tonnes against the target of 31.5 million tonnes.

“Our target is to handle 18 million metric tonnes by 2016/17 season,” he said while pointing out that under phase one of the project, with funding from TradeMark East Africa and TPA, the work will involve construction of access roads to Gates 5 and 8 to dual carriageways.

Other planned works include the demolition of warehouses 2 and 3 which will provide over 12,000 square metres of space for a container depot.

Vell Gnanendran Head of DfID Mission said Dar es Salaam Port handles two thirds of this country’s imports and exports but also goods from neighbouring landlocked countries in the region which is one of the fastest growing economically.

He pledged to continue supporting the government in improving efficiency at the Dar es Salaam Port and the central corridor because of its importance to economies in the region.