DRC and Tanzania Cooperate to Increase Railway Services
The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority
(TAZARA) and the National Railways Company of Congo (SNCC) will work together
to increase freight volume between Tanzania and DRC. This decision follows the
companies’ improved service performance in the recent past, according to the
press release issued by TAZARA. TAZARA and SNCC met in Dar es Salaam on 13th
June 2016. They also held a meeting with Dar es Salaam based customers and
other stakeholders on 14th June 2016 to discuss railway services in Tanzania,
Zambia and DRC. TAZARA runs from the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to
Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia where it links with Zambia Railways (ZRL) and connects
to SNCC, which runs to Lubumbashi in DRC. TAZARA and SNCC announced that
transit time between Lubumbashi and Dar es Salaam has been reduced from over 40
days to less than 10 days. TAZARA alone improved its transit time between Dar
es Salaam and New Kapiri-Mposhi in Zambia from 30 days to less than 7 days in
the last 10 months, Betram Kiswaga, Deputy Managing Director of TAZARA, said
recently. Accordingly, theft of cargo is eliminated thanks to the reduced
transit time. “These improvements have come as a result of changes of
leadership in both railways as well as measures taken by the shareholding
governments to stabilize and boost railway operations by injecting funds and
equipment.”, the press release indicates. TAZARA is the entity in charge of
operating the Tanzania-Zambia railway since its inception in 1975 by a
bilateral agreement signed between both countries under the TAZARA Act 1975.
China funded the project mainly to provide an alternative route from Zambia to
Dar es Salaam to export its copper. China also provided the necessary technical
support, expertise, equipment, and related infrastructure to make it viable. In
the 1990s, the economic performance of the railway began to decline and
continued deteriorating over the next 20 years. However, after 2010 China has
been helping TAZARA to revive its operations. Still, TAZARA infrastructure
cannot currently meet today’s development demand. This is why revitalizing
TAZARA is among the intentions of Tanzania, Zambia, and China. Lu Youqing,
Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in the United Republic of
Tanzania, recently said: “Today, TAZARA is still playing an important role for
the economic cooperation and personnel exchanges of Tanzania and Zambia.” “The
new generation of national leaders of China, Tanzania and Zambia pay utmost
attention to the operation of TAZARA. President Xi Jinping has agreed with the
Presidents of Tanzania and Zambia to make joint efforts to build TAZARA into
the Railway for Development and Prosperity in the new era,” he added.
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