Tanzania will start construction of a new port in the east of the country in December, a senior government official said, ending a decade of delays due to government objections to the initial contract terms agreed with foreign developers.
Bagamoyo port, a part of the large-scale special economic zone initiative involving industrial parks and rail and road links, is located about 75 km (47 miles) north of the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.
Gerson Msigwa, the chief government spokesperson, told reporters on Sunday that the port will have 28 berths but construction will start on 14 initially.
Construction machinery was on the way, he said without giving further details, and the port will have a depth of up to 20 meters and be able to receive larger ships than any other port in the eastern Africa region.
“The port will be able to handle ships with a capacity of up to 25,000 containers,” he said, without giving details of the value of the project nor the construction contractor.
The East African nation signed a framework agreement with two developers, China Merchants Holdings International and Oman’s State General Reserve Fund, in 2013 but implementation was delayed because the government said the terms were not favourable for the country.
After taking office in 2021, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said they had started negotiations to revive the $10 billion project.
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