THE first large ship is expecting to dock at Tanga port berth number one next January after completion of construction.

Tanga, situated at northern coast of the country, is the longest serving port in East Africa but a lighterage port with two shallow water berths.

Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) Executive Director Eng Deusdedit Kakoko said the port will start handling big ship at dockside thus decongesting Dar es Salaam port while cutting transport period to northern circuit. “The initial step of geological survey at berths No 1 and No 2 has been completed.

The construction of berth No 1 is expected to start by this fiscal year 2019/20,” Eng Kakoko said. The TPA chief said construction of berth No 1 would be completed between this December and next January, the larger ships will start offloading consignment at quayside.

Another challenge of the port was shallow water but Eng Kakoko said that would be taken care of since geological survey of taking soil sampling before dredging for increasing depth has been carried out.

The geology survey was conducted by Bureau for Industrial Cooperation (BICO), a unit of the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET) at University of Dar es Salaam.

The next step, TPA said, is to dredge so as to increase the port channel depth from current 3.5 to 5 metres to 11 metres. “The port once started receiving large ships will also open other opportunities for Tanga City residents by providing direct and indirect employments,” Mr Kakoko said.

TPA is planning to develop a modern jetty at Raskazone oil terminal in Tanga port capable of accommodating medium- sized petroleum products tankers of AFRAMAX with a Deadweight Tonnage (DW T) of between 80,000 and 120,000 metric tonnes current handles 4 5 ,000mt.

The decision has come after the government decided to use Tanga port as the second entry point option for petroleum products under Bulk System of Importation (BPS) effective from July 2015.

According to statistics since the system started functioning at the port effectively from July 2015 to date a total of 702,965 .6 6 0 metric tonnes of petroleum products have been handled.

The port, the second largest in the country and third in East Africa, has facilities to handle petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gas.

Tanga will be the main point to handle oil from Goima in Uganda after the completion of constructing a pipeline. The port of Tanga has a modern quay wall with total length of 381 metres covering both one and two.

The first 24 0-metre quay wall was constructed in 1918 and the remaining was constructed in 195 4 .