Cyclone Gezani caused damage to 60% of the port of Tamatave, essential to the country’s economy and food security. The first works made it possible to welcome the first boats at the dock this Friday. And the ongoing expansion work should not experience any major delays. Relaunching activity as quickly as possible is the priority of the General Director of SPAC (Toamasina Autonomous Port Company), Heritiana Anicet Randriambahoaka.
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RFI: What is the damage to the port of Tamatave?
Heritiana Anicet Ranriambhoaka: The medians were the most affected. The warehouses were 95% destroyed, all the roofs of the warehouses were blown away by the wind, as were some of the containers and stored goods were damaged. On the quay side, the damage is less, however equipment was damaged. This is the case for half of our elevators which unload containers, which we are currently repairing.
Fortunately, protective measures have been put in place. The recently extended breakwaters have allowed us to reduce the impact of the power of the wind. I can’t imagine the extent of the damage otherwise. After this cyclone, we can attest that the infrastructure is holding up and that we can move forward calmly in finishing the port extension work. [lancés en 2018 pour augmenter fortement sa capacité et ainsi répondre à la croissance du trafic maritime à Madagascar et renforcer son rôle stratégique, NDLR].
What emergency work did you carry out?
We took care of cleaning the debris left by the wind and the sea on the platforms, to make the storage operational. With our tugboats restarted and the bulk carrier unloading equipment repaired, we were able to resume serving this type of vessel, prioritizing essential cargo.
With the help of all our partners, and especially the SPAC team, we managed to relaunch the port this Friday after a 48-hour service outage. It is a gradual recovery, but the port authority has set itself the objective of reducing the port closure time as much as possible to have as little impact as possible on the economy of the city and Madagascar.
How will the full resumption of activity be carried out?
We will continue the restoration work. But to reduce the economic impact, we are also dependent on other factors, such as the rehabilitation of the national road for the movement of goods to the capital, and vice versa for exports.
The next step is the handling of container ships, which is estimated to be possible from Sunday. Ships are still waiting in the harbor, we will speed up and streamline processing to reduce their waiting time so that they can resume or start disembarking. But it won’t impact them that much and those who are on their way can keep their route.
The rules for prioritizing access to the platform will be applied and respected. The vast majority of aid sent by sea will arrive at the port of Tamatave, and will be given priority to helping the city’s population as quickly as possible, most of whose families are still in a precarious situation.
Can your employees return to work despite their personal difficulties? ?
Almost all of our 470 employees were impacted by the destruction. Some were injured. We made donations of food, as well as sheet metal and nails so that they could repair their house quickly. We gave vouchers to some. We want our employees to be able to get back on track and return to work. We are organizing ourselves so as not to impact our services and to give our employees time to treat the injured in their respective families and rebuild their homes.
Will the port extension work be slowed down by the consequences of the cyclone?
There will certainly be delays, but not significant ones. We are already in the final phase. Most of the equipment we need is already on site. The device was folded in anticipation of the cyclone. Time to put things back together and we’ll pick up where we left off. The delay will rather be due to the two days of closure of the port.
We are maintaining the schedule: deliver part of the new C4 quay by the end of March, which will allow us to receive large new generation boats from April, and open it in its entirety at the end of the year. We are currently studying the schedule to deliver the end of the extension work in 2029 as planned.
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date: 2026-02-13 19:54:00
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