Guinea-Bissau will have a dry port on the capital’s outskirts by the end of 2017 with capacity for more than 100,000 containers, the state secretary for transport and communications announced on Tuesday.

João Bernardo Vieira visited the dry port site at Pime near Bissau. He said it would cover an area of 25,000 square metres and include warehouses to conserve perishable products.

The director-general of the National Shippers Council (CNC), Fernando Dias da Costa, specified in turn that ground clearing work was now under way. The dry port or inland customs station will have an overland link to the maritime port that does not pass through the city centre, thereby preventing traffic congestion.

CNC is the public enterprise which owns the project. Da Costa said that creation of the new infrastructure would help ease the situation at Bissau’s Pinjiguiti port, which has limited space for containers.

The dry port will also serve as a parking area for container trucks waiting their turn to load cargo at Pinjiguiti port, he added.

Besides its trans-shipment role, Bissau’s future dry port may include facilities to store and consolidate goods, and for merchandise handling and road transport maintenance equipment as well as customs clearance services. (Macauhub/GW)