Zambia Tanzania Railway to Transport Malawi Fuel
The Government of Malawi contracted
the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) to transport 48m liters of
petroleum products in the next 12 months, starting July 2016. This was
announced after a meeting between TAZARA and the Malawi Government, held on
20th June 2016 in Dar es Salaam. The Malawi fuel can be moved from the port of
Dar es Salaam to the Malawi Cargo Center (MCCL) facilities in Mbeya. Eng. Bruno
Ching’andu, TAZARA’s Managing Director, assured the Malawi Government that
TAZARA is well prepared to handle the Malawi cargo thanks to its new
leadership. “Our shareholders have recently appointed me and my deputy, and
between us we have vast engineering and business experience […],” he added.
Eng. Ching’andu joined TAZARA in April 2016. Since then, he has instilled
discipline in the railway operations, with the firm now registering consistent
and shorter transit times in freight trains as well as passenger trains,
according to TAZARA’s press release. TAZARA 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. Currently (2016), TAZARA is also in discussion with the Zambian
Government and another private firm to begin carrying 14m liters of fuel per
month to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) within July 2016. TAZARA and
the National Railways Company of Congo (SNCC) met in Dar es Salaam on 13th June
2016. The companies decided to work together to increase freight volume between
Tanzania and DRC. This decision follows the companies’ improved service
performance in the recent past, according to TAZARA. 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
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