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The Mombasa port is set for a fresh round of dredging to widen and deepen the ship passage. The trigger for such works is the similar works going on at the rival Dar es Salaam port
The Mombasa port is set for a fresh round of dredging to widen and deepen the ship passage. The trigger for such works is the similar works going on at the rival Dar es Salaam port. Mombasa port authorities fear the upcoming works in Dar-es-Salam port would divert more traffic from its facilities to the Tanzanian port, which of late had seen a slew of modernization works.
Tanzania has lined up major dredging at the Dar es Salaam port in the fourth quarter of this year. Upon completion, it will lead to more ships berthing there. Dredging will help Dar-es-Salam port to have a minimum width of 170 metres and depths ranging from 15 to 16 metres below chart datum (CD).
The access channel at the Mombasa port was in 2012 dredged to a depth of 15 metres and a width of 300 metres. Earlier, the maximum allowable length of a vessel entering the port was restricted to 259m. Currently, the Mombasa port can handle ships with a maximum length of 300m.
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Mainline container ships with beams 45 metres can operate at draughts of up to 14.4 metres. For comparison, the approaches of container ports in the region, such as Dar es Salaam after completion of the capital dredging work in quarter four of 2023 have a minimum width of 170 metres and depths ranging from 15 to 16m below CD.. Against this, it becomes imperative to increase both the width and depth of the approach channel to Mombasa, allowing it to accommodate very large container ships efficiently.
