The Ethiopian Shipping & Logistics Service Enterprise (ESLSE) has received 35ha of land to relocate the Kombolcha dry port.
The reason for the relocation was the distance of the previous dry port from the city centre, which is eight kilometres away from the newly constructed railway line and industrial park in Kombolcha Wereda, 380Km north of Addis Abeba.
The port has served as an airport and a dry port for almost a decade. The relocation will ease the construction to integrate the dry port with the railway line and industrial park built in Kombolcha.
The port is located in the centre of the industrial zone and the railway line built from Awash to Woldya.
“It will help us to boost our capacity to serve industries and businesses,” said Aklile Ketema, architecture engineering head of ESLSE.
With the aim of developing the industrial sector, the government is currently constructing 10 industrial parks throughout the country. The Kombolcha industrial park is one of the parks that is planned to be completed in the next three years. The park will be open to any interested companies in the next two months, according to the Industrial Parks Development Corporation.
Besides the industrial park, the relocation will also ease the transportation of containers as it will be integrated with the Awash-Woldya railway project. The railway, stretching 394Km, starts in the North East of the city of Awash and arrives at Woldya via Kombolcha.
The railway will link Meqelle to Haro Gebeya and then Addis to Djibouti, which is the main transport corridor for both passenger and freight traffic, and for the transport of imported and exported goods via Djibouti Port. It will ease transportation between northern region and central part of the country. This will help the Kombolcha dry port to play a significant role as the only dock for Amhara Regional State.
Yapi Merkezi, a company which is constructing the Awash-Woldya railway, is the selected company to construct the new Kombolcha dry port, located at the centre of Kombolcha city.
“We are negotiating the cost of the project with Yapi,” said Aklile.
The project will likely cost over a billion Birr, from the government budget. The new port will have the capacity to hold 10,000 containers, twice the current capacity of Kombolcha dry port. Construction will start next fiscal year and be completed in less than two years.
Developing dry ports is one of the strategies adopted by the government in the second edition of the growth and transformation plan as a means to transport cargoes effectively and efficiently.
Last week, the expansion project of the Dire Dawa dry port, at a cost of 1.5 billion Br, begun by the Chinese-owned company. The construction will enable the Dire Dawa port to hold 10,000 containers, eight times the Port’s current capacity.
In addition, ESLSE has also started negotiations with China Communications Construction Company to begin the construction of the new dry port in Meqelle, with the capacity of holding 14,500 containers.
Founded in 2010, Modjo Dry port was the first dry port in Ethiopia. Now eight dry ports including Kombolcha dry dock are operational in the country.
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