Bukasa Inland Port is an under construction

inland port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers publ ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. Construction of the first phase began on 2 May 2024 with completion expected in 2025.

Location

The port is located along the northern shores of

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

, on approximately in the neighborhood of Bukasa in

Wakiso District Wakiso District is a Districts of Uganda, district in the Central Region, Uganda, Central Region of Uganda that partly encircles Kampala, Uganda's capital city. The town of Wakiso is the site of the district headquarters. Kira Town, Kira, the count ...

, about , by road, south-east of the central business district of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

, the capital and largest city of Uganda. When fully functional, the port is expected to occupy a bigger land area. Efforts to secure more land are underway. In February 2019, the

Daily Monitor The ''Daily Monitor'' is an independent daily newspaper in Uganda. Launched in 1992 as ''The Monitor'', it established itself as a leading voice critical of the government and is one of the two largest national newspapers, alongside the state-ow ...

reported that the project area had been increased to .

Overview

When completed the inland port is designed to handle up to 5.2 million tonnes of freight annually. The port will facilitate movement of goods from the

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

n ports of

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

and

Tanga Tanga may refer to: Places Burkina Faso * Tanga, Andemtenga, a town in eastern Burkina Faso * Tanga, Sidéradougou, a village in western Burkina Faso * Tanga-Pela, a village in northern-central Burkina Faso Tanzania * Tanga Region, Tanzanian a ...

, via rail to the port of

Mwanza Mwanza City, also known as Rock City to the residents, is a port city and capital of Mwanza Region on the southern shore of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania. With an urban population of 1,104,521 and a population of 3,699,872 in the region ...

on Lake Victoria. Barges would then bring the cargo over the lake to Bukasa. This would reduce Uganda's near-total dependence on the port of

Mombasa, Kenya Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

Funding

Two

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

financial institutions agreed to lend US$48 million towards the construction of this port. The Uganda government will contribute US$8.5 million to this project. The funding for the construction of the port is as depicted in the table below: Totals may be off slightly, due to rounding.

Construction

, ''GAUFF Gmbh & Co. Engineering KG'', a

firm that is performing the consultancy work for the construction of the port, is finalizing the master design of the development. In July 2018, dredging of the swamps is expected to commence. Physical construction of the administration unit and the shipping facilities called Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo) is expected to commence in June 2019, and last until April 2022. More development and expansion will continue until 2030. Construction of the initial phase is expected to last three years. In February 2019, the National Environment Management Authority of Uganda (NEMA), approved the construction of this inland port. Construction will be phased. ; Phase I The first phase will involve construction of the port, administration jetty, free trade zone, shunting yard, a two-berth multipurpose terminal and a two berth Roro terminal. ; Phase II The second phase, expected to be complete by 2030, will extend the multipurpose terminal by additional two berths to a total quay length of . ; Phase III The third phase, to be completed by 2040, will extend the quay length of the multipurpose terminal to . All three phases will require the dredging Lake Victoria.

Developments

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the first phase was awarded to "Coppieters JV", at a contract price of €14.9 million. Gauff Consulting Engineers from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

are the supervising consultants.

References

External links

Tanzania: Bukasa - Is the Inland Port in Doubt?
{{coord, 00, 17, 23, N, 32, 40, 14, E, display=title Wakiso District Ports and harbours of Uganda Lake Victoria