Ethiopian Dry Port Service Enterprise (DPSE) is setting up additional dry ports, in Mekelle and Dire Dawa, to ease congestion at the Modjo Dry Port.

“The Enterprise picked Mekelle and Dire Dawa because they are industrial areas with growing cargo flow,” Dessalegn Gebre-Hiwot, deputy CEO of Ethiopian Shipping & Logistics Services Enterprise said.

The Dry Port Service Enterprise is already using rented spaces in the two towns: a 3,000sqm plot, rented from the Ethio – Djibouti Railway Enterprise, and a 1,500sqm space rented from the Mekelle Administration.

There are close to 300 containers being imported each day into the country, which the existing permanent and satellite ports cannot accommodate.

Established on 63ha of land, the Modjo Dry Port is undergoing a eight-hectare expansion, with a budget of 617 million Birr.The expansion includes a eight-hectare cargo terminal, parking for heavy trucks and internal roads.

The Authority researched 15 areas, including Dire Dawa and Mekelle, in six regions,to establish permanent dry ports.The project is part of the GTP plan, which seeks to establish 35 dry ports by the end of the 2014\15 fiscal year.

Source: Fortune