Mbabane – Swaziland
Railway’s Inland Container
Depot is celebrating its
15th year of operations with
expansion plans needed to
handle increased volumes.
“For the past years we have
experienced an average 15%
growth in business. More
of it is containerised traffic,”
said Bhekisisa Manyatsi,
manager of the depot. Located
in the heart of the Matsapha
Industrial Estate and radiating
road and rail lines like spokes
of a wheel, Swaziland’s
dry port has been essential
to sustaining the country’s
industrial sector.
“Businesses find rail traffic
is fast and safe. From the
time a container is sealed until
the consignee breaks the seal
the cargo is secure. Because
containers are weatherproof,
cargo damage is lessened
compared to open wagon
transport, and proper packing
means less breakage,”
said Manyatsi.
Growing customer
preference for container
transport means the railway
must expand its physical layout
to accommodate longer boxbearing
trains. Negotiations
are under way to buy adjacent
government property that
would allow the present tracks
to lengthen.
Of the port’s 50 000 m2, 26
000 are used for operations.
The site expansion will
increase by 7000 m2 sqm or
about 20% the operational area,
Manyatsi said.
Two Italian-made mobile
cranes and a container lift
straddling one track can
quickly offload trains, and
their capacity to do so is only
limited by the size of trains
now able to use the dry port.
Most Swazi container traffic
travels to and from Durban
(560 km), and Swazi crews
are traded for SA crews at the
border (150 km away) for a trip
that takes roughly two days.
The depot also handles
transit traffic for trains en
route to Mpaka in the eastern
lowveld, where coal is shipped
to SA via Komatipoort.
Though a government
parastatal, Swaziland Railway
receives no government
subsidies. But the wellmanaged
company delivers an
annual dividend to government,
and ploughs its share of profits
back into operations.
Swaziland dry port celebrates 15-year anniversary
31 Oct 2008 - by James Hall
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