Lebanon’s Tripoli port readies to fill in for blast-hit Beirut

  • Date: 13-Aug-2020
  • Source: Arabian Business
  • Sector:Transport
  • Country:Lebanon
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Lebanon’s Tripoli port readies to fill in for blast-hit Beirut

Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli is readying its harbour to temporarily replace that of Beirut, which was levelled in last week's massive explosion, officials said Thursday.

Tripoli port's capacity is smaller than the capital's, through which the vast majority of Lebanon's food and other imports used to transit.

A fire at Beirut port on August 4 caught a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate, causing an explosion that devastated swathes of the city and killed at least 171 people.

Immediately after the disaster, Lebanon's Supreme Defence Council ordered that the port of Tripoli be prepped for "import and export operations".

"The port of Tripoli can stand in for Beirut on a temporary basis, for the time it will take it to be operational again," Tripoli port director Ahmad Tamer told AFP.

The smaller ports of