Writes Leo Odera Omolo
INFORMATION emerging from Dar Es Salaam says a Chinese firm has secured a USD 5 million contract to build wagons for the regional Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority {TAZARA}.
The Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company {OCECC} will secure the 50-tonnes containers open-wagons, assisted by China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation and Miashan Company a subsidiary of OCECC. The open wagons will be delivered in eight months time.
Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika, the managing director of Tazara was recently quoted as saying that these type of wagons are used in transporting containerized cargo and metals such as copper and manganese.
The Tazara MD said his companies urgently require various type of equipment to turn it around.” These developments will compliment Tazara’s effort to meet customer expectation in the delivery of quality transport services,” he added
The USD 5 million is part of the USD 40 million loan that the Chinese government granted Tazara, through the governments of Tanzania and Zambia, under the 14h Protocol jointly signed in December 2009..
Signing of the supply contract followed the arrival two weeks ago of technical experts from China who were in the country to assess and repair leading equipment as part of the implementation of the 14th Protocol agreement,
Other component of the protocol that are expected to follow include the supply of six new mainline locomotives, rehabilitation of three shunting locomotives and training of staff.
Conrad Simuchile, the public relations manager of Tazara, disclosed that the wagons will the cargo from the port of Dar Es Salam southward.
That way, wagons earmarked for picking up copper exports from Zambia and cement from the Southern Tanzanian region of Mbeya will not be empty while traveling back to the port of Dar Es Salaam.
To match the tonnage being transported to Dar Es Salaam, Tazara is looking for up to 200 containers per week, to Mbeya and Kapiri-Mboshi. Currently, Tazara can move up to 100 containers to Mbeya and 100 t Kapiri-Mposhi every week. It can also transport the same volume to Dar Es Salaam.
Tazara is this year targeting to move 700,000 tones of freight and 900,000 of passengers traffic.
In July this year, Tanzania,Zambia and China signed a USD39.2 MILLION {Tshs 51 billion} deal to enable Tazara to acquire six new locomotives and repair 1,200 coaches.
The grant has not been fully settled. The Chinese government is said to have offered a discount on the loan, besides cancelling unspecified outstanding debts..The railway which was christened Uhuru railway, was built by the Chinese in between 1970s and 1975 to serve the landlocked Zambia as alternative route to the rail line through Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique.
It was during the difficult time of the liberation war in both Southern Rhodesia, Mozambique and apartheid South Africa.
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