Chinese president seals Tanzania’s ‘mega-port’ project

The Chinese president has sealed Tanzania's Bagamoyo project - a deal to build the new port of Bagamoyo, north west of Dar es Salaam, at a total cost of US$10 billion, reports PortTechnology.com. This was announced by the president of China, Xi Jinping, while recently visiting Dar es Salaam and forms part of a major investment by the China in the infrastructure of the Mbegani area and East African seaboard. This overall project is due to be completed by 2028. The expectation is that Bagamoyo port will supersede Dar es Salaam port as the country’s main port and container handling centre. It will be built with a draft sufficient to accommodate higher capacity container vessels of 10 000 TEU and beyond, as well as possess specialised roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) berths and other cargo berths. The overall scale of the planned development will provide a highly competitive solution to Kenya’s port expansion plans in Mombasa and Lamu. The first-phase development of Bagamoyo port is expected to be in operation by 2017 with construction undertaken by China Merchant Holdings of Hong Kong.