27 March 2008
Maputo — Repairs to the dry dock in the central Mozambican city of Beira mean that Mozambican ships, particularly the country's fishing fleet, will no longer have to travel to neighbouring countries for repairs, according to a report in Thursday's issue of the independent newsheet "Mediafax".
Felisberto Manuel, the chairperson of Beiranave, the company that runs the Beira Naval Dockyards announced that it has spent 2.5 million US dollars on the repairs, and on dredging the quay that provides access to the dry dock.
This expenditure was justified, he said, given the importance of shipping in the Mozambican economy.
The Beira dry dock was built in the 1960s, but for the past 20 years it has worked with considerable difficulty because its main gate allowed water to infiltrate. The recent repairs, however, should mean that the dry dock is now 100 per cent operational.
Manuel said that, although the dock can repair 100 boats a year, it will probably not be able to keep up with domestic demand. This is because maritime traffic along the Mozambican coast is forecast to double over the next five years.
He said that programmes should therefore be designed to expand the dry dock, so that it will be able to repair vessels that are at least 200 metres long.
A second headache for the fisheries authorities in Beira is the degraded state of the fishing port, which should complement the activities of the dry dock. According to Fisheries Minister Cadmiel Muthemba, the government is continuing to negotiate funding for rehabilitation of the fishing port - and it is not yet clear whether donors will be willing to commit funds.
The problem is that originally funding agencies, including the African Development Bank (ADB), had announced they were willing to finance the rehabilitation to the tune of 20 million US dollars. That was the figure given by a company hired by the ADB and other partners to assess the costs.
Apparently this firm got the maths badly wrong. When contractors were invited to bid for the contract, they said it would cost over 50 million dollars. So far there is no funding guaranteed for that extra 30 million dollars.
Pf/ (371)
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