Movement of goods to landlocked East African countries is set to improve if plans to upgrade Tanzania's ports succeed. The Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) will renovate and expand five ports on the Indian Ocean coast and inland water ways as well as inland customs depots this financial year.

The TPA has set aside funds for various improvements on Dar es Salaam Port, Mtwara, Tanga, Bagamoyo and Mwambani on the Indian Ocean coast and Kigoma Port.

The developments are intended to cater for the current and future volumes of goods to and through Tanzania.

A tender announcement last week invited firms to conduct feasibility studies on the development of lorry parks outside Dar es Salaam Port, development of a ship breaking facility at Mtwara Port in southern Tanzania, and a study for the creation of additional yards at Tanga Port on the north eastern coast.

Also planned is a study on traffic flow at the Mtwara Port to accommodate Tanzania's southern corridor import/export traffic to Malawi, Zambia and northern Mozambique.

The successful firm for Mtwara Port development will determine type and size of the ship breaking facility to be constructed initially and for future expansion.

It will also carry out a market survey on vessels to be scrapped over 10 years, among other works. The Mtwara study will also require consultants to study truck intensity and truck turn around times during peak operations, and propose improvements and expansion if needed.

Tanzania ports serve landlocked Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, DR Congo and Uganda.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni specifically asked Tanzania to upgrade Tanga Port and dedicate it to Uganda's imports and exports, to provide an alternative route to the sea to that of Kampala-Mombasa.

Other feasibility studies to be conducted include development for the proposed port at Mwambani area in Tanga, and a feasibility study for development of a dry port at Katosho in Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika.

As for Tanga Port improvements, the successful consultant will review ship and cargo traffic forecast contained in the port's Master Plan 2016, and determine the optimum size of the yard requirement for the port to cater for demand in 2016.

It will also identify areas for construction of the proposed yards, and prepare their layout plans and preliminary engineering designs. The feasibility study on Katosho area in Kigoma will involve reviewing cargo traffic forecasts for the period up to 2018 and forecast cargo that could be handled on the 16- hectare area of the port terminals.

The study will also involve the verification of 25-ha dry port area requirement and prepare preliminary dry port layout to be linked to the Tanzania Railway line from Dar.

The Dar es Salaam port improvements will include determining the vehicular traffic pattern to match existing and future traffic, propose physical improvement and traffic management measures on the Bandari Road which is currently heavily cluttered by heavy duty container carrying trucks, and propose parking for lorries that await to deliver cargo to match port operations up to 2013.

For the Mwambani and Bagamoyo studies, the TPA seeks consultants to review ship and cargo traffic forecast for the period up to 2018, assess national annual port capacity demand up to 2018, and prepare preliminary port layout plan, engineering designs and entrance channel layout.

The ports plan is also linked to another master plan mooted by the East African Community to network the region with railway connectivity.