Ethio-Djbouti Railway Reduces Port Congestion

Addis Ababa July 04/2018 Ethio-Djbouti Railway Corporation has provided Ethiopia with a viable logistics support to transport containers that were stowed away at Djibouti port resulting in port congestion overtime, the Ethiopian Maritime and Logistics Services Enterprise said. However, in its latest 11 months report delivered to the House of Peoples' Representatives,   the Ministry of Transport has earlier said that stockpiling of containers at the port and the resulting congestion has incurred huge port service and storage expenses on the country. The Ministry added that stockpiling of goods in containers has prevented the country from improving its services in par with international logistics standards. The Ethiopian Maritime and Logistics Enterprise claims that logistics services currently provided by the Ethiopian Railway Corporation is playing a major role in solving the problem. Engineer Asefa Bekele, Port and Facility Director at the Enterprise told ENA that the railway company has been transporting only two containers at a take off stage has now managed to transport 106 containers to Mojo Dry Port Terminal at a time. He said that the railway service is helping to markedly reduce the congestion that was previously observed at Djibouti Port. The corporation is reportedly planning on extending its logistics services to Dire Dawa Dry port facilities, which is to be built with a budget of 67.2 million USD on 34.1 hectares of land within a period of two years. Studies are already underway to construct a similar dry port in Kombolcha town. Desalegn Gutu, Deputy Manager for Ports and Terminal Services said that the enterprise is engaged in a long range plan of building more dry ports within the proximity of the railway lines in the country.  He added that the Enterprise is also providing support in promoting export services through the provision of container packaging as a means of reducing wastage and foreign exchange expenses.