TMEA officiates the demolition of sheds at Dar port

 Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) in partnership with a UK based International donor funding agency (DFID and the World Bank has officiated the demolition of two sheds as part of the on-going expansion programme of Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project (DMGP). The DMGP is a Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) project which is a response to the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative aimed at generating capacity to cater for the projected traffic growth at the Dar es Salaam port. The exercise which took place last week at the Dar es Salaam port was symbolically demonstrated by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport Dr. Shabaan Mwinjaka with a view to open up the second phase of the project since its inauguration during the 2012/13 financial year. The demolished old sheds located within the Dar es Salaam Port, would pave the way for reconstruction of the State-of-the- art storage facilities which on their completion would improve the physical capacity of infrastructure and operational efficiency at the port.   

Ships at Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania

In his introductory speech, the PS said that, the first phase of the project which aims to expand the ports’ infrastructural upgrades and strengthening and modernization of dredging of berths from number 2 to 7 will be completed by September this year. The PS noted that, these drastic changes in Dar port’s efficiency and throughput guarantee an increase of revenue and other economic benefits for TPA and Tanzania. TPA has facilitated the TMEA to contribute effectively in this project that is so fundamental for the economic transformation of the country and the region at large. He said the significance of the project on its completion, is expected to allow the handling of bigger vessels to improve the port’s competitiveness in the global maritime industry. The completion of the first phase will also help increase the handling capacity of cargo and port’s throughput to 18 million tones by 2016/2017 from 12.1 million tones currently the port is handling. However, he added that, the whole project is currently being funded by the World Bank and DFID at a total cost of $ 596 million as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between TPA and donor funding agencies.