Tanga port projects to link region and rival Mombasa. In Summary The first project, backed by the government, and whose groundbreaking is in three months time, will link Tanga to Musoma and on to Kampala and Juba. But the government-backed project has suffered several setbacks since it was first introduced in 1976, with the latest being a decision by Uganda to ditch it for a partnership in the Kenya-Kigali standard gauge railway project. However, Tanzania has pledged to go ahead without Kampala. Tanga port in Tanzania is set to become a key trade hub for the region when two planned infrastructure projects linking it to Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are completed. The first project, backed by the government, and whose groundbreaking is in three months time, will link Tanga to Musoma and on to Kampala and Juba. Construction of the second, privately owned project that will link Tanga and the Banana port on the Atlantic Ocean in DRC to Kampala and Juba, is to start in 15 months. Both projects entail construction of new ports and standard gauge railway lines, aimed at diverting cargo shipped to Uganda and South Sudan through the Mombasa port. But the government-backed project has suffered several setbacks since it was first introduced in 1976, with the latest being a decision by Uganda to ditch it for a partnership in the Kenya-Kigali standard gauge railway project. However, Tanzania has pledged to go ahead without Kampala. READ: Test of unity for EAC as Tanzania is isolated But speaking in Tanga recently, Minister for Transport Harrison Mwakyembe said 22 investors had shown interest and that Uganda had not officially withdrawn from the project, for which a $2 billion partnership agreement had been signed in June 2011. At the time, Uganda, which uses the Mombasa port for 99 per cent of its cargo, declared its intention of reducing its reliance on Kenya. The second project is the Mwambani Economic Corridor, under which Tanzania-based Mwaporc Co Ltd also plans to construct a new port in the same region — Kigombe — linking Tanga with a railway crossing East and Central Africa through Uganda to the Atlantic Ocean port of Banana in DRC. The firm is said to have secured $22.5 billion from its equity partners, almost 30 per cent of the total cost of the project estimated at $75 billion. But the government’s plan, which Mr Mwakyembe says is aimed at speeding up economic development in the northern and Lake Zone areas, goes against the findings of a study conducted by Japan in 1979 that discouraged the venture. The study found that no attempt at a thorough economic evaluation of the project had been made. “Indeed, no data for operating cost and estimates of expected revenue are given other than two summary figures in the introduction, where it is also noted that the railway could not be justified from an economic standpoint,” reads the report. The report further says there was a need to investigate carefully the Kenya-Uganda railway link and Mombasa port for comparison with the proposed Tanga-Arusha-Musoma railway, adding that Rwanda and Burundi, as port users, should have also been brought into the picture.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 05:19:31 +0000
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