Countries backing the Northern Corridor—a regional road connectivity project—are seeking to woo Tanzania to allow cargo headed to Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to pass through its borders to shorten transit time and ease costs in a bid to boost the attractiveness of the Mombasa port.
The Northern Corridor, a network of 1,700 km long interconnected highways, starts from the port of Mombasa and serves Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Eastern DRC.
A meeting of ministers of transport from the six-member countries of the Northern Corridor last week ordered the secretariat Northern Corridor Transit and Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) to initiate talks with Tanzania over the proposal.
If successful, Northern Corridor trucks that have traditionally had to take the longer route from Mombasa through Uganda to Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will take the shorter way through Tanzania, cutting about 400 kilometres of the travel distance.
Read: Northern Corridor truckers mull shift to Dar over tax
The council of ministers, chaired by Uganda’s Minister of Works and Transport Katumba Wamala, said using the route, which passes through Taveta into Holili in Tanzania, will “not only reduce costs of transit transport but also increase Mombasa Port throughput.”
The route is currently not being used by transporters because Tanzania, which is also seeking to boost the throughput at the Dar es Salaam port and the Central Corridor, has not geofenced it, preventing its use by cargo trucks destined for other countries.
The East African Community (EAC) customs union requires that trucks ferrying imported commodities be tracked using the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System Currently, truckers that opt for the short Taveta-Holili route have to deposit a “bond” for the cargo at the Mombasa port, submit it at the border, wait for its cancellation, then institute another one for Tanzania, a process that normally takes at least three days.
“That is why it is important that the section from Holili be geofenced. There’s a section of about 21 kilometres that has not been geofenced,” said Omae Nyarandi, executive secretary of NCTTCA.
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