Last month, February 2017, Tanzania’s Minister for Works Transport and Communication Makame Mbarawa stated that the Government of Tanzania will from next month, March 2017, kick off the construction of an inland container depot (ICD) estimated at the worth of USD4 million.
The report that was made by China’s official press agency Xinhua, mentioned that the ICD would be set up in the Coast region.
The depot is aimed at decongesting the Dar es Salaam port that serves the landlocked countries of Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.
Mbarawa added that the ICD will be constructed in 500 hectares of land and will be completed in 9 weeks.
He was speaking at the signing of the agreement to implement the ICD project, between the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) and Suma JKT.
“Once the project is completed, we expect an accelerated movement of goods and containers from the Dar es Salaam port to the ICD, something that will decongest the port,” Mbarawa said.
The Minister also mentioned that plans were afoot to widen and increase depths of berths in the Dar es Salaam port and construct a new berth in Mtwara port to enable large vessels to dock.
The project would be followed by another project to construct a 300-meter long berth at the Dar es Salaam port to specifically service imported vehicles.
