TANGA Port looks forward to a bright future,
projecting to serve over five times the current consignment as a result of
planned implementation of various construction projects, citing industries and
Hoima-Tanga crude oil pipeline.
Currently, the port serves an average of 700,000 tonnes
of consignment annually, thus the figure will go up to 3.5 million tonnes, Port
Manager Percival Salama revealed this
when speaking at the Tanga Business Forum
organised by the Tanzania Standard (Newspapers) Limited (TSN).
He stated that though the size of the consignment of
materials for Hoima-Tanga oil pipeline construction was yet to be announced, it
may need about 25,000 trucks to transport the offloaded cargo from the port to
the inland destinations.
"By next September, the contractors of the
Hoima-Tanga pipeline project will be certain over the size of cargo for
construction materials that they will be importing through the Tanga
Port," Mr Salama said.
He further stated that the envisaged major cement
industry to be constructed by the Hengya Company has assured the Port to import
over 1,000 containers during the construction.
President John Magufuli is set to lay a foundation stone
for the construction of the industry in the near future, which will be the largest
in East and Central Africa.
"But the question here is how are our roads capable
of handling the envisaged cargo from the port? How are we prepared in investing
in the logistics field so as to serve the consignment from the port?" he
asked, pointing out the importance of improving roads and railways.
He went on querying, "How are Tanga residents
prepared in exploiting such opportunities, these are questions to ask ourselves
and work on them. As we speak over opportunities, these are the ones."
He suggested that Tanzanians should need to embrace the
individual's responsibility in contributing to the country's development. The
port's plans also include receiving large part of cargo from the neighbouring
countries.
He advised the government to focus more on constructing
hub ports as opposed to the feeder ports in order to make the ports contribute
more to the national economy. "We want to handle a large amount of cargo
for the neighbouring countries in the next few years," he said.
So far, he said the port has recorded a growth trend,
with the statistics showing that the last financial year its current annual
ultimatum performance was 845,000 tonnes of cargo.
Source: allAfrica