Mwanza, TANZANIA
The government of Tanzania plans to construct a cargo ship with the
capacity to carry 50 tonnes to only ply in Lake Victoria, according to Chief
Executive Officer of the state-owned Marine Services Company Limited (MSCL),
Eric Hamissi.
The lake Victoria water body is shared by Tanzania,
Uganda as well as Kenya with more than half of it being occupied by Tanzania in
proportionality followed by Uganda.
Hamisi said tender for the construction work will
be announced next month.
He said that currently, MSCL owns a wagon ferry—Mv
Umoja that has a carrying capacity of 19 tonnes of wagons.
Hamissi made the statement here yesterday when
briefing members of the ruling party's central committee who visited various
projects implemented by MSCL in Mwanza city.
He informed that the government also plans to build
another cargo ship that will be plying in Lake Tanganyika. He said the new ship
is expected to dominate cargo transportation within East and Central African
region as Tanzania is bordered by almost all inland water bodies in the area.
“These cargo ships will ease transportation within
the country but also transfer cargos to neigbouring countries such as
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We expect to earn a lot from the
businesses,” he noted.
He pointed out that company's ships can make good
business by transporting cotton seed cake from Tanzania to Uganda and other
countries and at the same time come back with iron sheets from Uganda.
According to him, the company also anticipates to
have a ship to tap marine tourism potential as the industry is one of the
sources of the country's economic drivers.
“We have not properly used our marine potentials to
promote tourism in the country. We should have at least one ship for the
purpose,” he said adding that it is high time the country exploits the
opportunities for economic development.
He noted that the company should go beyond and
serve as a serious player in promoting tourism industry in the country in its
operations.
The CEO revealed that the state-owned company is
working on a plan to start ship operations in the Indian Ocean between Tanzania
and Comoros to tap the opportunity of transporting goods from Comoros to other
countries within East Africa.
Comoros is closer to Tanzania ports than the ports
in Mombasa, Kenya and Durban in South Africa, he said. - Africa
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