Terry Hutson 'Don't ignore it as a container port' Ð mayor THE NATIONAL Ports Authority (NPA) has decided to call for international tenders to build a new dry dock at Richards Bay. CEO Siyabonga Gama made the announcement at last week's formal handover and naming ceremony for the Port of Richards Bay's latest tug, Indlazi, which was built in Durban in the record time of 12 months. Gama said that details of the dry dock, which is expected to have a major spin-off for the Zululand economy, would be made available within the next four weeks. "I am hoping that by this time next year we'll come back for the turning of the soil to kick-start this long awaited dry dock project in Zululand," he said. Gama said that the port, which already handled 90,8 million tons of cargo a year, was gearing itself for a multi-million rand expansion at the coal terminal which was aimed at raising its capacity from 72 million tons to 82 mt a year. This project would be complete by 2004. The mayor of Umhlatuze, which includes Richards Bay, Denny Moffatt, congratulated the NPA on this initiative but said that the port, which was only 40% utilised, had such immense infrastructure that it did not make sense to ignore it as a container port. "We have people who are prepared to come here and build a container terminal at no cost to the NPA. We are working really hard at developing our local economy and are ready to go with containerisation - and we won't place a levy of $75 on every container."
