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- Feb 18, 2013
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Construction of the second container terminal at Mombasa port is well on course. According to Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) managing director Daniel Manduku, the terminal which occupies 100 acres of space at Kilindini Harbor in the Port of Mombasa is 30% complete.
“We have mobilized enough equipment’s and workforce, and we hope to deliver the project by 2021,” explained the M.D.
Fears of the project stalling
There were fears that the construction works could slow down following the ongoing tender investigations, Mr. Manduku however disregarded the allegations indicating that unlike the first phase of the project which was completed about four years ago, phase two whose implementation begun in January this year is far much ahead of schedule and there will be no delays or whatsoever.
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Expectations for the project
Under the execution of Japanese Toyo Construction Company, the second terminal is an important facility that is expected to raise capacity of the port of Mombasa to allow larger container vessels to dock. This will enable the port to fight off growing competition from the Port of Dar es Salaam in the neighboring republic of Tanzania.
Upon completion, the approximately US $337.3m project, funded through a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) is projected to be handle an extra 450,000 TEUs per year, thereby pushing up the port’s total handling capacity to 2.1 million TEUs in the next three years.
The first segment of the three-phase project which cost about US $269.5m has since its completion in 2016 elevated the facility’s handling capacity to nearly 1.7 million TEUs from 1.08 million TEUs.