Bagamoyo is perhaps best known to the western world as the place from which European explorers set off in the late 19th century – Burton, Speke, Livingstone and Stanley among others. It was to Bagamoyo that his faithful assistants Chuma and Susi brought Livingstone’s salt-preserved body after the missionary explorer had died over a thousand miles away in central Africa.
Now the small coastal town is back in the news as the site of a new port, so the Tanzanian Port Authority has announced, and once again Bagamoyo is to become the starting point for trade caravans into the interior.
Situated 60km north of Tanzania’s capital and chief port of Dar es Salaam, a two-berth harbour is to be constructed at a cost of US $ 225 million and fitted out for container handling in a programme that aims partly at relieving the pressure on Dar es Salaam while providing alternate routes for shippers in neighbouring landlocked countries.
Tanzania recently announced its intention of upgrading and creating harbour facilities also at Mbamba Bay on the Tanzanian side of Lake Nyasa / Lake Malawi (see Ports & Ships News Bulletin for 16 May 2007) and at Mwambani outlet on Tanga Bay on Tanzania’s north coast (see Ports & Ships 14 March 2007). The latter harbour is being developed by Kuwait Gulf Link Port International at a cost of $ 400 million.
The new port project at Bagamoyo remains subject to successful geotechnical assessment which is expected to take six months to complete, although a TPA spokesman said it is hoped to begin construction of the new port facility early in 2008.
The new port will lie seven kilometres south of Bagamoyo within the Mbegani Fisheries Development Centre, a training facility established in 1967.
Now the small coastal town is back in the news as the site of a new port, so the Tanzanian Port Authority has announced, and once again Bagamoyo is to become the starting point for trade caravans into the interior.
Situated 60km north of Tanzania’s capital and chief port of Dar es Salaam, a two-berth harbour is to be constructed at a cost of US $ 225 million and fitted out for container handling in a programme that aims partly at relieving the pressure on Dar es Salaam while providing alternate routes for shippers in neighbouring landlocked countries.
Tanzania recently announced its intention of upgrading and creating harbour facilities also at Mbamba Bay on the Tanzanian side of Lake Nyasa / Lake Malawi (see Ports & Ships News Bulletin for 16 May 2007) and at Mwambani outlet on Tanga Bay on Tanzania’s north coast (see Ports & Ships 14 March 2007). The latter harbour is being developed by Kuwait Gulf Link Port International at a cost of $ 400 million.
The new port project at Bagamoyo remains subject to successful geotechnical assessment which is expected to take six months to complete, although a TPA spokesman said it is hoped to begin construction of the new port facility early in 2008.
The new port will lie seven kilometres south of Bagamoyo within the Mbegani Fisheries Development Centre, a training facility established in 1967.