The Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) stakeholders committee has urged public and private institutions serving the country’s dry ports to increase efficiency so as to make Dar es Salaam port competitive.

Its acting chairman, Hebel Mhanga, said in the city last weekend that the port will be modern and competitive if dry ports service providers employ more staff and work longer.

“Some dry ports fail to meet their targets simply because of the absence of some institutions in all 17 dry ports,” he noted.

Reading some resolutions of the committee’s meeting, he mentioned some of the institutions as the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), Tanzania Weights and Measures, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives as well as the Tanzania International Container Terminal (TICTS).

He said should that be implemented, it will help fast clearance of cargo to conform with the working speed of the port which now operates for 24 hours.

For his part, the managing director of Jefan Logistics Tanzania Ltd, Luca Neghesti, called on all stakeholders of the port to work hard to realise the Big Results Now (BRN) policy, adding:

“All stakeholders need to make sure that they render the best services.”

The operations manager of Tanzania Road Haulage (1980) Ltd, Ali Hussein Lilani, stressed the need for stakeholders to work together.

He said this would make them realise the objective of making Dar es Salaam the preferred port for imports and exports in the region.

Apart from being strategic for Tanzania, the port also serves serves seven landlocked countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Several representatives of the port’s stakeholders attended the meeting. They came from the Tanzania Shipping Agencies Association (TSAA), Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (TAFFA), Container Inland Depot Association of Tanzania, shipping lines, car freight owners and terminal operators.

Others were government departments and institutions, including the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and the Tanzania Police Force.
Both the TPA management and the port stakeholders agreed to meet every last Thursday of the month to discuss various matters geared to revamp TPA services.

Source: IPP Media

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