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.