The Landside Congestion in the Container Port: A Case Study of Sohar Port in Sultanate of Oman

The maritime transport of containers has experienced a continuous growth during the last years, since it provides low cost of transportation, likewise other advantages such as reduction of traffic during road transport between countries. On the other hand, these ports created a level of traffic congestion associated with the road‐based transport of goods from the port.

This problem may lead to other significant problems, such as delays the delivery of the goods, with the consequential of losing the value of the products, the rising of the service costs in the port and others.

There are many factors are leading to the landside congestion, such as the location of the Sohar port, which is located in the densely-populated city, as well as traffic congestion in the roads linking the port Sohar with other main cities such as the capital of Sultanate of Oman, Muscat.

Although the importance of this issue, there is a gap in information regarding the landside congestion due to the location Sohar port because the port is modern and It was built during the new millennium, As the containers began to reach the port of Sohar on 31 August 2014.

This purpose of this research is to fill the gap in information in regard to the landside congestion due to the location Sohar port and investigates this phenomenon associated with the Sohar port location and suggest the potential improvements through mitigation actions such as other means of transport, new transportation infrastructure or revised port schedules to optimise the solutions and change the port to port-centric logistics.

The aim of the research

•    Do a literature review on the landside congestion in the container port

•    Investigate the landside congestion in Sohar port

•    Find the solutions for the landside congestion in Sohar port in Sultanate of Oman

The objectives of the research

The first objective is to appraising the current situation of the landside congestion in the container port for theoretical and practical and the research effort in this field so far. This is addressed through the following questions:

1. What is the concept for landside congestion in the container port?

2. What have the researchers said (theoretical and practical)?

3. What are the latest trends to face the landside congestion container port?

The second objective is to explore attributes the landside congestion in the container port in generally and in the Sohar port as the case study, and the impact of the congestion on the port’s ability to transport the goods from the port. This raises the following questions:

1. What are the reasons that created the landside congestion in the container port?

2. What is the role of the port authority and governmental agencies in solving the congestion problem?

The third objective is to integrate the findings data that has been collected in the first objective and apply it to investigated case study in the second objective, in order to optimise the solutions for landside congestion problem, through the following questions:

1. What are the suggestions for solving the landside congestion problem?

2. Who are the responsible for implementing the proposed solutions?

Using secondary data to find the concept for landside congestion in the container port, what have the researchers said and what are the latest trends to face the landside congestion container port.

Do the Interview with the relevant officials of the Ports Authority, government agencies and shipping agents who deal with Sohar Port, and collect data related to landside congestion in the Sohar port in Sultanate of Oman. Then perform the data analysis to find the optimal solutions for landside congestion problem.