TPA Acting Director General ,will undergo major improvement under a 690-million-dollar,DAR ES SALAAM port

DAR ES SALAAM port will undergo major improvement under a 690-million-dollar expansion programme.Tanzania Ports Authority Acting Director General Aloyce Matei told reporters in the city that the World Bank has provided a loan of 600 million US dollars while 30 million US dollars have been issued by Trade Mark East Africa and the Department for International Development (DFID).
TPA will contribute the remaining 60 million US dollars, he said. The improvement will be carried out in five years and is primarily meant to make the country’s sea gateway enlarge its cargo handling capacity.“In order to enable large ships to enter the port and also being able to afford serving the huge increase of cargo that is expected in the coming years, so improvement to the infrastructure and performance system is very necessary,” Matei said.He said that shipment of cargo at the port for the past five years has been increasing at an average of nine per cent annually, with a noticeable increase of shipments in oil and containers.

“The growth indicates that until 2030 the amount of cargo will increase to 38 million tons from 16 million tons in 2014/15,” he said. According to Matei, the improvement will go together with the rehabilitation of a number of berths in order to enable large ships to land at the port.The transfer of Kurasini Oil Jet (KOJ) pier and oil pipelines at the area of construction and improvement of the rail network and construction of the uploading and downloading luggage on wagons are some of the activities which will take place.

He added that research has been done on environmental impact assessment before the start of the project and TPA has a permit certificate from the National Environment Management Council.He however, said that there is no shortage of incoming cargo and this is for all ports worldwide due to the global economic crisis -- especially in China and other countries using Dar es Salaam port.

Meanwhile, Eng Mary Mhayaya of the TPA said the project of flow metre at the Kigamboni area which spent 6.5 million US dollars was completed last month and awaits a permit from the Weight and Measures Agency (WMA) to start working officially.

She said already the metres’ operators have already trained on how to operate. “Stakeholders have shown their satisfaction with the system of using flow metre and they will get more information about the system online,” she said.