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Community system planned for ports
2007-07-18 09:11:40
By Austin Beyadi and Grace Tinda, IJMC
The Tanzania Ports Authority has talked of plans to have a community system that would connect all port sub-sector stakeholders in the country.
TPA Director General Ephraim Mgawe said the community would consist of experts from the Tanzania Revenue Authority, Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority, Tanzania Trucks Owners Association, Tanzania Zambia Railway, and Tanzania Railway Cooperation.
Mgawe made the remarks at a conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday forming part of celebrations to mark the Tanzania Ports Authority Week.
He saw the system helping to improve the port’s efficiency, thereby regaining its lost credibility and even eclipsing all other ports in this part of Africa.
Export Processing Zone Authority Director General Adelhelm Meru told the conference that a number of investors have been keeping away from the Dar es Salaam Port after associating it with slow handling of cargo and general inefficiency.
He said the investors were complaining that problems at the port ate up too much of the time they needed to work on their businesses.
“Investors naturally prefer ports that guarantee them speedy loading and offloading of goods so that they can meet their supply deadlines. Business is growing fast, making the port congested and less efficient than is expected of it,” Meru explained.
He pointed out that enhanced efficiency would be an incentive to make foreign investors and local businesspersons who have been avoiding the port come back and conduct their businesses in the country.
The TPA acting director for planning, Florence Nkya, meanwhile said they already see congestion at the Dar es Salaam Port assuming alarming proportions in the coming five years or so.
She noted that the there is an urgent need to modernise the port and explore avenues through which to ease the congestion, one option being actually relocating the facility.
According to the TPA official, the port can comfortably hold 250,000 containers at a go but now it accommodates up to 350,000.
She called on the private sector to chip in by building two berths near the oil jetty so as to ease the congestion.
“Bagamoyo port would be part of a long-term strategy as it needs some supporting infrastructure, including a railway link and a road network for transit goods,” noted Nkya.
TPA has said it has set a staggering 41bn/- to improve infrastructure at the country’s ports as a way of capturing a bigger share of the eastern and Central African market, with 7.2bn/- going into rehabilitation work and the construction of jetties on the shores of lakes Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa.
The development of the ports would go alongside with that of the inland transport network.
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