Maputo, Mozambique, 30 Dec – Dredging maintenance work at the dock and manoeuvre basin of the port of Quelimane, the capital of the Mozambican central province of Zambézia, has ended, Mozambican newspaper Notícias reported.

The maintenance dredging, which will make it possible for ships that travel to the port to moor and manoeuvre safely, cost around US$200,000, which was provided by Cornelder Moçambique, the port’s concession holder.

Domingos Muzeia, the head of Cornelder-Moçambique in Quelimane, said that dredging at the port of Quelimane, which takes around three months, was an operation carried out every year to make it possible for cargo ships with a draft of five metres arriving at the port to moor without the risk of running aground.

Cornelder Moçambique is a public-private partnership between Dutch company Cornelder, with a 70 percent stake, and state company Portos e Caminhos-de-Ferro de Moçambique (30 percent), which was granted a 25-year concession to manage the port of Quelimane.

As well as day to day management, the company also has to improve the port’s facilities during the lifetime of the contract, with the help of funding of 23 million euros provided the German development agency, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. (macauhub)