Tanzania’s TAZARA to transport tonnes of cargo in 2019-2020 to Zambia

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority Board of Directors has finally approved plans to transport 300,000 tonnes of freight in its 2019-2020 fiscal year, according to a statement released by TAZARA on June 2.

The statement issued after a meeting of TAZARA Board of Directors members in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam said that the Board has also approved plans to ferry 800,000 passengers during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The statement said the Board was also resolved to engage more private operators so that the volume of traffic on TAZARA could increase further.

"TAZARA owns a lot of valuable assets that are either lying idle or are underutilized in most cases," said the statement. The Board also directed TAZARA management to appoint a contract manager to specifically manage contracts for the open access and the rental of locomotives from other railway operators, said the statement, as reported by Xinhua.

The statement added that the Board directed the TAZARA management to evaluate the possibility of embracing workable public-private partnership models through which to finance the re-manufacture of idle locomotives and the development of idle land assets.

TAZARA was constructed as a turnkey project between 1970 and 1975 through an interest-free loan from China, with commercial operations starting in July 1976, covering 1,860 kilometers from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia, Xinhua reported.

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