Construction of the multipurpose Atlantic Container
Terminal in the Western region of Ghana has finally kicked off. The project,
being developed by Ibistek Ghana
Limited, will see the port basin dredged to a 16-m depth and land
reclamation for the building of five new berths, capable of receiving very
large vessels.
The first phase of the project will be financed
partially by the African Finance Group (AFC), following a withdrawal by the African
Development Bank (AfDB), the initial financiers of the project.
According to Pascal Dumez, the project manager,
between 250 and 300 workers will be engaged for the construction phase of the
project. “For now, we want to make progress as fast as we can, since we
have lost significant time, and we want to make up by speeding up so we can
hand over the berths within the 24-month,” he added.
Upon completion, the Atlantic Terminal is set to be
the largest development in the history of the Takoradi Port and will have a
cargo holding space of one million twenty-footer equivalent units (TEUs), an
upscale from the average container traffic of about 55,000 TEUs a year.
The project which is a joint venture between
Ibistek and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GHPA) under a concession
agreement signed between the two in 2017, will develop dedicated port terminal
facilities within the Takoradi Port for the handling of containers and
containerised cargo. It will also handle other multi-cargo commodities and
related terminal services.
The multipurpose container terminal will also serve as a main transhipment point for cargo moving from Ghana to neighbouring landlocked countries.https://constructionreviewonline.com/2019/08/construction-of-multipurpose-atlantic-container-terminal-in-ghana-kick-off/