M a r k e t N e w s
East Africa: Newly constructed port terminal to start operation in mid 2016
Posted on : Thursday, 15th October 2015
Multi-donor agency Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), has hinted that the newly constructed Mombasa port terminal which cost US$ 30.9bn will be operational in June, 2016.
Dr. Chris Kiptoo, the TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) Kenya director said that the agency will hand over the facility to the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) by mid next year.
The terminal which has a capability of increasing container space by 450,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) at the port of Mombasa will be ready by June next year but will be fully operational by end of 2016.
“From what I gather,the constructed Mombasa port terminal should be ready by June 2016 but it is also safe to say that by end of 2016 that terminal should be fully operational,” said Dr. Kiptoo.
Apparently, TMEA has also chipped in US$ 194m so as to support the expansion of an eight-lane highway from the Moi International Airport to Changamwe roundabout to Port Reitz Road to ease operations at the upcoming port.
Currently, yarding has also been done at the port, with Yard Five already handed over to the Kenya Ports Authority. The yard has an additional capacity of 2,700 TEUs.
“Yard five took us a year to complete and hand it over to the KPA in December last year. With the current capacity of the port standing at around one million it is important that we balance capacity with efficiency,” said Dr. Kiptoo.
The terminal is being constructed at Kilindini Harbour on a 100 acre piece of land and was launched in December 2012 by the then President, Mwai Kibaki.
Source : constructionreviewonline.com
