Joint initiative to reduce delays in Dar es Salaam

Plans to reduce congestion in
the port of Dar es Salaam could
see greater volumes to and from
Zambia being diverted from
Durban to the much closer harbour.
The Tanzania Revenue Authority
(TRA) and the Investment Climate
Facility for Africa (ICF) have signed
a 15-month agreement to put systems
in place to clear cargo through Dar es
Salaam within five days.
“If all port stakeholders play
their part, I’m confident that goods
should be cleared from the port
within the internationally accepted
period of five days. We may even
bring the period down to 24 hours,”
TRA commissioner general Harry
Kitilya said at the signing.
In December last year, Tanzania
announced plans to build a second
container terminal at a cost of
US$400-650 million to ease
congestion as the existing facilities
cannot cater for the growth in
demand due to increased economic
activity in the region.
Private sector investment is
being sought for the new terminal,
which the country hopes to have
operational by 2014. The current
container terminal at Dar es Salaam
has four berths.
According to a study
commissioned by a task force set
up by Tanzanian president Jakaya
Kikwete, operations have improved
during the past year by 35-45%.
It found that the dwell time
(the time that cargo remains at the
port terminal storage area before
clearance) had dropped from an
average of 20 days in January
2009 to between 13 and 11 days
for transit and domestic goods
respectively earlier this year.