ABIDJAN, Sept 28 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Ivory Coast plans to pump more than $230 million into West Africa's biggest port to increase capacity and accommodate bigger ships in anticipation of a post-war economic revival, a port official said. Activity slowed at Abidjan's state-controlled port when a 2002-2003 civil war left the northern half of the world's top cocoa producer under rebel control, causing landlocked countries to the north to turn to other regional ports to move goods.
Now that a March peace accord has breathed new life into national reconciliation moves, the port hopes to capitalise by recovering lost business from these expanding economies, its head of communications Faustin Toha said in an interview.
"By 2010, the infrastructure here could be inadequate. It's a question of forward planning," he told Reuters late on Thursday. "We hope that with the return of peace these partners will return to Abidjan port, which will increase the tonnage."
The expansion project involves building quays, warehouses and roads on the Ile Boulay, a virtually undeveloped strip of land in Abidjan's Ebrie Lagoon, where the port is located.
Ile Boulay would be connected to the mainland by a bridge running to the vast Youpougon suburb, Toha said.
Construction work could begin as early as 2008 but no clear timetable has been elaborated as yet. President Laurent Gbagbo said this week the project would cost around 75 billion CFA ($162 million) of which two thirds were available now.
Toha said it would cost around 35 billion CFA francs more to deepen the Vridi Canal linking the lagoon-side port to the open sea to 14 metres depth from 11.5 metres, enabling larger ships to access the port. This would bring the overall cost of the expansion project to 110 billion CFA francs ($237.3 million).
"The port of Abidjan wants to figure among the world's major ports which can receive these big ships," he said.
The former French colony, which has a smaller port in the western town of San Pedro, is rich in agricultural and mining resources and also has a small but growing crude oil industry.
Resource-hungry Asian giants China and India are expanding their presence here and elsewhere in West Africa while Iran has also sent delegations to Abidjan to discuss trade.
Toha said Abidjan's container port, managed by SDV, the local unit of SDV Logistics International and French industrial conglomerate Bollore Group, was more efficient than some other ports, avoiding costly delays for shippers.
"We can unload containers quickly and there are no tailbacks. In some ports the ships have to stay out at sea," until the port is ready for them, he said.
The entire port can now handle 60 ships at a time.
Despite steps to reunite the country after the civil war, marine insurance companies still demand shippers pay a war-risk surcharge imposed following days of anti-French rioting in November 2004 in which around 8,000 expatriates fled Abidjan.
Toha said the surcharge should now be scrapped after President Laurent Gbagbo named rebel leader Guillaume Soro prime minister under a March deal to reunite the country through disarmament and long-delayed elections now due next year.
"If the country has found peace again, insurers should understand there is no reason for these taxes," Toha said.
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