Vital equipment has arrived at Ghana’s Takoradi Port allowing expansion works to continue.
The project is expected to take three years and when complete, position the port to receive bigger vessels, improve the turn-around time and eliminate double handling of cargoes.
Work includes extending the breakwater northwards to 1.75km, construction of an oil services terminal, reclamation of 53,000 hectares of land, dredging a 16m deep access channel and construction of a bulk terminal.
The expansion will free the existing manganese terminal for the increasing demand of other sectors, including oil and gas, positioning the port to receive traffic from other countries.
Works will include opening of a storage area for oil gas pipelines as well as plant and machinery needed for the oil and gas sector.
Director of Takoradi Port, Capt. James Owusu Koranteng, said manganese, bauxite and other bulk cargo operations would be transferred to a new dedicated jetty.
Negotiations are also underway with the Ghana Railway Company to convert the Sekondi Railway Station into a container terminal.
Two construction firms, Messrs Jan-de-Dul from Belgium and China Harbour Engineering Company are executing the project utilising a number of Ghanaian companies and two consultancy firms, Sell Horn Engineering and Hamburg Port Consulting are supervising the development of the new facilities.
The first and second phases of the project total $344m.
Last year the port received 1,664 vessels, a drop on 1,798 in 2011.
