The Autonomous Port Management Company of Toamasina (SPAT) has announced the launch of construction work on the new dry port. A project aimed at reducing logistics costs and facilitating commercial exchanges.
Development work on Toamasina's new dry port began Monday in Tsarakofafa. This new infrastructure is part of the expansion phase of Toamasina port. In a statement, the port company stated: "This milestone marks the official launch of the implementation of the Toamasina Multimodal Logistics and Port Platform project (PMLPT)." According to SPAT, this is a "strategic project aligned with the SPAT 2.0 vision. This platform aims to modernize transport and logistics infrastructure, strengthen the performance of Toamasina port and position the city as a major logistics hub in the region."
Development work on the new Dry Port III had been announced several weeks earlier by the port company. This infrastructure aims to address a logistics challenge: adapting port capacity to growing international trade, while making Toamasina the region's main hub in the Indian Ocean. Currently, certain goods still transit through Reunion or Mauritius, which serve as intermediate ports due to inadequate storage infrastructure. Goods that should cost ten ariary end up costing twelve due to logistics constraints.
The implementation of this work is based on a court decision issued in 2025, ordering the release of the Dry Port III site by those occupying it without legal right or title. SPAT claims to have conducted dialogue with residents of the Tsarakofafa site. "Despite this judicial decision, SPAT did not proceed with immediate execution. Aware of its social responsibility and the situation of the families concerned, it prioritized a period of dialogue, information and consultation before work began," the port company stated, while acknowledging that "some families settled on the site may have been victims of fraud or irregular land transactions." This situation prompted some opposition from the families concerned yesterday.
Several measures have been taken by SPAT, including the establishment of a single-window office on site to welcome and register affected households, as well as coordinate their relocation. SPAT has also allocated a 250 m² plot at Dry Port II to each registered household that agreed to voluntarily leave the site. The land allocated for this operation belongs to SPAT, the company clarifies. It adds: "This support measure will not be limited to simple plot allocation. All necessary steps will be taken to guarantee legal security of land rights for beneficiaries, including surveying and delimitation of plots, transfer of property rights and establishment of a land title in the name of each beneficiary."
Itamara Otton