TANZANIA Port Authority (TPA) has said that Kwala dry port located in Coast Region is expected to handle 300,395 cargo containers per year destined to neighbouring countries.

This is according to a statement issued yesterday by TPA director general Plasduce Mbossa on the progress of the construction of the port which has already started receiving cargo containers.

The statement said that the dry port will have the capacity to serve 823 containers per day and 300,395 containers per year equal to 30 percent of all containers currently served by the Port of Dar es Salaam.

It said that to ensure that TPA has already obtained a dry port license issued by Tanzania Shipping Agency and a customs license issued by Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).

The advisory said that up to February 10 this year, there were a total of 232 cargo containers and 78 empty containers at the Port of Dar es Salaam for more than 50 days that were transferred to Kwala dry port and more than 100 containers have been taken by customers.

In addition, the statement said procedures for moving more containers from the Port of Dar es Salaam to Kwala were ongoing as part of reducing congestion.

It mentioned the benefits of starting operations of the dry port as increasing efficiency and amount of cargo served at the Port of Dar es Salaam and increasing the government's income through services provided at the two ports.

The inland port is expected to reduce operating costs thus attract more customers to use the Port of Dar es Salaam hence increase  competitiveness of the Indian Ocean port regionally.

“It will help improve economic and business activities in Dar es Salaam and Coast regions by reducing the current traffic congestion and improving road safety as a large number of Dar Port cargo use rail transport,” reads the statement.

“This will help increase long life of the main road infrastructure between Dar es Salaam and Coast region and expand employment opportunities for residents surrounding the dry port.”