Dubai – Mubasher: Dubai-based ports operator DP World has signed a 20-year concession with an automatic 20-year extension with the Republic of Mali to build and operate a 1000-hectare logistics hub outside of Mali’s capital, Bamako.
The new project, Mali Logistics Hub (MLH), will have inland container depots (ICD) and container freight stations (CFS), which will facilitate the import and export of goods.
Located on the main road corridor from Senegal’s capital, Dakar, to Bamako and in proximity to Dakar-Bamako rail line, MLH is projected to handle 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) and 4 million tonnes of bulk and general cargo, according to a company statement.
With an estimated initial investment of $50 million, the first phase of the DP World’s project in the African nation will include an inland container depot and container freight station facility that will boost Malian economic growth.
Construction of the project’s phase I is to commence in 2019 and is expected to be completed within around 18 months, Dubai's state-owned ports operator noted.
“The Malian market is expected to grow over the next two decades and is driven by a robust economic and population growth,” DP World's chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem commented.
Under the new agreement, DP World will offer Mali three locomotive trains to support cargo and passenger traffic along the Bamako-Dakar rail system, the global enabler revealed.
MLH is also forecast to reduce processing times for products entering the Malian market in order to mitigate the difficulties facing trade and economic development.
“The project will provide us with a first-class logistics facility comparable to global standards and will be the largest in terms of capacity,” Mali’s Minister of Equipment and Transport Moulaye Ahmed Boubacar said.
