Africa-Press – Tanzania. MTWARA Port has started handling transportation of coal destined for various areas in and outside the country, the port’s Manager Engineer Juma Kijavara has confirmed.
Kijavara made the revelation here yesterday after a 183 metre- long ship docked at the deepest water port in the country for the first time to ship 33,000 tonnes of coal destined for India.
The Aprilia Nassau Vessel docked at the port on Sunday morning, to collect the consignment produced by Ruvuma Coal Limited. The coal for export was transported from Ruvuma to the port by road.
The vessel moored at the old berth is expected to ship the consignment from yesterday. It was anchored at the old berth alongside a 180 metres long oil vessel that brought 7.2 million liters of oil for the southern zone.
“Mtwara Port is capable of handling big vessels as you are witnessing here today (yesterday) that we have two big vessels handled at the old berth at the same time,” he said, adding that the port is also expected to receive more cargo ships to handle other products including cashew nuts.
He said Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) and the management of Mtwara Port is doing all the efforts necessary to ensure the port handles many exports and imports.
“For that matter, I just want to assure the importers and exporters ready to use Mtwara Port that our port has the capacity of handling all kinds of imports and exports and we are well set to handle their products,” he said.
He said TPA has taken various steps to attract more cargo from importers and exporters including reducing Mtwara Port tariffs by 30 per cent for all importers and exporters at Mtwara Port.
Mtwara Regional Commissioner Brigadier General Marco Gaguti said the move by Mtwara Port to handle coal exportation was a good indication towards ensuring the major investment done by the government at the port has started paying off.
“I’m happy that the big investment done by the government to upgrade our Port has started paying off. As we are witnessing here we have two big vessels docked at our port handling coal for export and oil destined for Southern Zone areas,” he said.
Brig Gen Gaguti said the handling of the coal is set to be continuous activities at the port as more mining coal companies are set to use the port in transportation of the coal.
The RC said the handling of coal at Mtwara is set to be a continuous exercise as the port is expected to handle 40 metric tonnes for every month.
The Director of Ruvuma Coal Limited Ryan Weinand said the company has plans to continue using the port in exportation of the coal. He said the second vessel is expected to collect more coal after three weeks from now.
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