Tazara Railway
The Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara), a joint railway line jointly owned by Tanzania and Zambia, requires about 4 billion US dollars to fully modernise the railway line and its operations, the Times of Zambia reported on Thursday.
Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, the company's managing director said it would be costly to rebuild the railway line considering that a lot of money would be required to start afresh, adding that it was the reason the two governments have opted for rehabilitation.
"It is cheaper for us to rehabilitate the infrastructure other than having to start all over again, because 4 billion dollars will be require if we are to reconstruct Tazara," he was quoted as saying by the paper, during a meeting between government leaders from the two countries.
According to him, the two governments wanted to pay more attention to the railway company, which has faced operational challenges over the years, and bring it back to its original glorious state, adding that the money would have to come from either the two governments of invited private sector participation.
Tanzania's Transport minister Dr Harrison Mwakyembe said during the same occasion that the railway firm will not collapse because it was an important venture to the two governments because of its historical background.
The two countries, he said, will come up with a plan to be implemented on the rehabilitation of the railway line which is currently facing operational problems considering that 90 percent of the cargo had been shifted on the road instead of moving on the rail.
The joint railway has for years suffered poor management, lack of wagons and locomotives, unreliable timetables and problems with track maintenance.
At its peak, the 1992-kilometer railway, which links the Port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to the Zambian town of Kapiri Mposhi, could transport about 2.5 million tons of cargo a year but it currently moves only a quarter of that. source The Guardian
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