14:48
China
has pledged to finance the Tanzania-Zambia Railways (Tazara) and extend it to
four other countries.
Official
from the three governments — China, Tanzania and Zambia — are meeting in
Dar es Salaam to put together details of the plan whose proposal include
reducing the bloated Tazara workforce, The East
African reported.
The
plan will include renovating the 1,860 kilometers track and linking Tazara
to Tanzania’s new Bagamoyo port and to Malawi, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
The
plan is part of the China-Africa co-operation agenda discussed at the Forum On
China-Africa Co-operation in Johannesburg in December 2015, Rowland
Msiska, secretary to the Zambia Cabinet said.
“Rwanda,
Burundi and Eastern DR Congo will be linked through the Seleka-Mpulungu section
of Tazara in Zambia, where the construction study has already been completed
and is only awaiting financing,” Bruno Ching’andu, Tazara CEO, told the East
African.
The
Citizen reported that China will take over the management and operation of the
railway line in a privatization arrangement that has been termed by the
Tanzanian government as turn-around strategy.
Tanzania
and Zambia would also review their domestic laws to provide for
preferential provisions in the running of Tazara, with a view to attracting
more private players.
It
is the only railway line in Africa that links three economic blocs, including
the East African Community, COMESA and SADC, that serves more than 600 million
people or half of the continent.
Volume
of cargo transported on the line has bee dropping over the years despite
increased throughput cargo at the Dar es Salaam port.
“The
throughput cargo at Dar port increased from six million metric tonnes in 2006
to about 15 million metric tonnes in 2015 and yet the share of TAZARA has
decreased from 601,229 metric tonnes in fiscal year 2005/2006 to just 87,860
tonnes in 2014/2015,” Tanzania’s Chief Secretary, Ambassador John Kijazi,
told Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
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