The Port of Port Louis
in Mauritius will invest
$240 million in major
infrastructure upgrades
which are already under way
and on track for completion
by 2017.
According to Aruna
Bunwaree Ramsaha, deputy
director general for the
Mauritius Ports Authority,
the first stage of the upgrade,
which will see the island’s
container terminal extended,
started last year.
“The work has been
structured in three
components with the rock
binding works having been
completed already. The
marine and civil work is
ongoing and dredging is
expected to be done next
year,” she said.
The upgrade will see the
container terminal capacity
increase to 750 000 TEUs
per annum from its current
550 000. “We are also
strengthening and upgrading
the existing berths of 560
metres by another 240 metres
to a total quay length of 800
metres while the container
yard is
also being
expanded.”
Ramsaha
said the port
had to be
dredged from
its current
14.5 metres to
16.5 metres to
accommodate
bigger
vessels. “We
are under
pressure from
shipping
lines to
improve our
infrastructure to allow for
bigger vessels. As mega vessels
are deployed on the main lines
vessels are being cascaded
down onto the African routes
and we are increasingly seeing
far bigger vessels than ever
before.”
She said it was becoming
quite common to see 8000-
TEU capacity vessels at
African
ports.
“Out
of 671
container
vessel calls
at the Port of
Port Louis
in 2013 a
total of 59
were from
vessels
with an
8000 TEU
capacity.
That is a
quarter of
the calls
at the port,” she said. “We
were able to accommodate
these vessels as they were
not fully laden but pressure
from shipping lines has been
increasing for us to provide
the infrastructure to allow
them to bring in fully laden
vessels of this size.”
She said with the port
handling more transhipment
cargo from the region it was
confident that volumes would
continue to grow.
“Our long-term vision is the
construction of a breakwater
dredged to a depth of 18m. We
have serious swell problems at
the port that are a concern and
have to be addressed at some
point in the future. Being an
island it is essential that we
protect the terminal,” she said.
“Also on the cards is another
container terminal.”
This terminal would have a
throughput of 1000 TEUs and
a quay length of one kilometre.
She said there were no
timelines in place for the
development of this container
terminal as yet, but it would be
a public private partnership.
The estimated cost of this
investment was $600 million.
INSERT & CAPTION
The upgrade will see
the container terminal
capacity increase to
750 000 TEUs per
annum from its current
550 000.
– Aruna Bunwaree Ramsaha
