Expansion will increase the port’s capacity to handle more cargo
Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority’s chairman, Aboubaker Omar Hadi, said that the government would expand the country’s port and would spend USD330 million on the whole procedure, reported Reuters.
Hadi added that the expansion, which would increase the port’s capacity to handle more cargo, would be expected to finish by the year 2014; moreover, it would include establishing a quay and container handling equipment.
He also said that since the country hosted France’s largest military base in Africa in addition to a key US base, the port was used to fight piracy by foreign navies patrolling busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia.
It is worth noting that once completed, the port will have the capacity to handle 3 million containers annually from an estimated 800,000 at the end of fiscal 2011.