ICD planned to ease congestion

Congestion of containers at the Dar es Salaam port would be substantially reduced after the construction of an inland container depot at Kisarawe, some 40 kilometres from the port.

The development of Kisarawe ICD, a project whose feasibility study was funded by the World Bank, would be to shuttle containers between Dar es Salaam port and the depot by rail.

A report presented to conference on port operations in Africa by the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) said the proposed depot would be located where the Tanzania Railways Ltd (TRL) and Tanzania Zambia Railway (TAZARA) rail lines are about seven kilometres apart.

"The authority has decided to invest in the facility in order to reduce container congestion at the Dar es Salaam port," the report read in part, adding that TPA plans to construct a multi-storey car park at the port, the country's largest.

The facility, with a capacity of accommodating about 8,000 vehicles at one time, will operate as a cargo freight station. Its construction starts next year.

Construction of the ICD, the report added, is one of the strategies undertaken by the authority to modernise the port facilities and infrastructure which will, in turn, improve service delivery.

They also include implementation of a Single Point Mooring (SPM) project, which started in October this year. The project would be implemented for a period of 18 months.

TPA officials say the US$60 million project will enable the port to have capacity to handle six million tonnes per annum.

Other actions taken to address the question of a limited port capacity is the reduction of cargo dwell time and ship waiting time by acquiring appropriate equipment, introduction of vessel and yard planning software system.

"The computerisation of general cargo terminal and harmonisation of cargo clearance system in collaboration with other stakeholders forms a part of the strategy to address effective service delivery," the report pointed out.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)