Bollore Logistics transports heavy packages to Uganda for Karuma Dam project

Sep 18, 2018: Bollore Logistics teams based in Uganda and Kenya have joined forces to provide comprehensive heavy lift services of construction equipment items for Karuma dam project in Uganda.

In 2015, Chinese Group Power China, whose subsidiary Sinohydro specialises in the construction of dams, began construction of the Karuma power station on the edge of the Nile in northwestern Uganda. It is the first underground hydropower plant with a capacity of 600 MW. 85 percent of the work has been completed and once finished in 2019, Uganda hopes to meet the country's growing demand for electricity. This large-scale project therefore requires significant logistical support.

Thus, in October 2016, Bollore Logistics was entrusted with the task of ensuring the shipment of the trucks carrying the goods, as part of the contract including unloading and transport from the port of Mombassa (Kenya) to the Karuma yard (Uganda), 1,285 kilometres in 12 days.

As part of this contract, in 2018, Bollore Logistics ensured the transport and unloading of a 98-ton container to the 15 km long and 450 meter deep tunnel. The peculiarity of this task is to take into account the accessibility and means of movement in a narrow tunnel with an inclination of about 12 degrees, frequented day and night by several hundred workers.

Due to the logistics firm’s adapted solutions, such as the deployment of a rail system access, tilting of the container or the moving of trailers in reverse, the entire transport of the exceptional goods was carried out without accident.

“For the Kenyan and Ugandan teams at Bollore Logistics, this is the heaviest unit successfully transported and unloaded in 2018,” said the company through a statement.