Dar es Salaam: New ferry stimulates trade

  1. Posted on Wednesday 10 June 2009 - 23:37
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    Deo Simba, VoicesofAfrica, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
    Tanzania President, Jakaya Kikwete, recently launched a 500-tonne vessel with the capacity to carry over 50 vehicles and 2,000 passengers. The ferry boat was designed and built by a team of 30 Tanzanian engineers in cooperation with a German ship building company. It took the team one year (Nov 2007 - Nov 2008) to complete the task at the total cost of TZS 8.5bn (about US$ 7.5m).
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    With the new ferry boat, residents of Kigamboni area, a sub-urb of Dar es Salaam, are now assured of safe, fast and reliable means of transport contrary to what they used to have. MV Magogoni, as the ferry has been Christened, operates alongside the old ferry boats of MV Alina and MV Kigamboni. Kigamboni residents expressed their optimism that the new ferry boat will help usher in speedy development in the area.

    Formerly, many residents of Dar es Salaam shied away from residing in the area because of a lack of reliable means of transport. Plans to modernise and plan Kigamboni area are also underway. Along with these plans, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is also planning to invest in a US$30m worth overpass bridge to link Kigamboni to Dar es Salaam.

    Already tenders for consultancy have been floated in order to ensure that the construction job starts by the year 2010. Building of MV Magogoni is historic because Tanzanian engineers were closely involved in the design and building of the vessel. This breaks the myth that local experts are only good in theory. It is also a proof that transfer of technology is possible and can be implemented to solve local problems and reduce dependency on foreign experts.


    This video is part of the Voices of Africa project. The mobile reports in this project are made by reporters under training and reflect their respective progress.

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