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The TAZARA Railway: Zambia’s Access to Sea

By Chila Namaiko  Journalist TIMES OF ZAMBIA

One of the historic projects that has boosted the bilateral cooperation between Africa and China, is the memorable railway line built in the 1960s, the Tanzania and Zambia Railway (TAZARA).This single-track railway is approximately 1,860 kilometres long rising at sea level from the East African port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, to Zambia’s Kapiri Mposhi district at 1400 metres above sea level in the Central African country Zambia.The railway is an integral part of the southern Africa Regional Rail Transport, and is currently being operated by the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority.

TAZARA’s economic trade links
In terms of international trade facilitation, TAZARA is remains an important route currently linking the port of Dar-es-Salaam in East Tanzania with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia’s Central Province.
The railway line promises to be a gain to the entire African economy.
This is because, currently, the railway handles exports and imports of both Zambia and Tanzania, and other countries such as Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Great Lakes Region, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Researched information (www.tazara.co.tz) shows that on regional railway network connections, TAZARA constitutes an important part of transport network of Southern African Development Community (SADC) states and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) states.
In terms of trade patterns and its impact of the railway, TAZARA still plays a major role in trade facilitation within the COMESA states because it connects easily with COMESA in the South with whose railways it shares a common gauge.
It is further stated that landlocked central African nations of Burundi and Rwanda in the Great Lakes Region also stands to benefit from TAZARA services, whether their important are passing through South Africa port or Dar es Salaam.

Benefits to Zambia
TAZARA is one of the effective means of transportation of goods for Zambia.Since Zambia is a landlocked, this means to survive economically, the nation has to import some commodities and at the same time exporting commodities like copper and other agricultural products.Therefore, TAZARA provides an important international trade route which has to a large extent provided the only route for bulk trade from Zambia’s Copperbelt to reach the sea in the neighbouring Tanzania.
A railway line such as the TAZARA is a key infrastructure for transportation of goods and services and it is much needed to increase the country’s opportunities for external trade.
TAZARA management said recently that improved business at the Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania had helped to boost the transportation of cargo in its area of operations.
According to the TIMES OF ZAMBIA (2018), TAZARA managing director Bruno Ching’andu said the freight traffic in the year 2016 to 2017 increased to 170,000 recorded in the previous year.
Mr Ching’andu said the passenger traffic increased from 414,746 to 487,856 in the 2016 to 2017 year while the transit time reduced from 8.5 to 6.4 days.
The high demand of transportation through the TAZARA was largest attributed to the shipping of metals among others Copper and Manganese that had gone up requiring added bulk carriage.
“More cargo to Dar es Salaam has been stimulated by improved services by management in such area as reduced transit time, accidents and security risks. Improved performance of the Dar es Salaam port will increase cargo on the line,” said Mr Ching’andu.

TAZARA promotes tourism
The Tanzania Daily News recently reported that TAZARA offers a huge potential in promoting tourism in industry in the country.It reported that thousands of tourists were among the millions of passengers ferried by the railway from Dar-es-Salaam to Kapirimposhi in Zambia.
Meanwhile, in the same tourism sector, early this year, Zambia and China held a groundbreaking ceremony to commence the construction of a memorial park that will commemorate the Chinese who died during the construction of this railway.The memorial park being constructed in Chongwe district in Lusaka on a two-hectare land, will be a tourist attraction centre in that it will be a history book for the younger generation of China and Zambia and once completed, it be a free park open to all people and will become a new landmark building to promote tourism.

Customs Clearance situation
In terms of customer satisfaction, researched information (www.tazara.tz) also shows that currently, it takes about three to four days to haul traffic to and from the port of Dar es Salaam for customers at any point in Zambia and vice versa.It states that all information regarding consignment, the wagon position and others, is computerized, and customer can be advised of the position of their cargo within seconds by use of the Advance Cargo Information System.
It states that TAZARA offers a special customers a special transportation package whereby importers’ and exporters’ cargo is customs clearance by the railway’s freight clearing and forwarding Unit from transportation up to the point of destination such as in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi or Tanzania.

Challenges
According to Mr Ching’andu, (TIMES OF ZAMBIA (2018), he attributed some of the challenges to lack of sufficient recapitalization, inadequate rolling stock, poor truck condition leading to low locomotive speed was affecting the performance of the company.“Huge deferred maintenance leading to low motive power and wagon availability, inadequate rolling stock obsolete signaling and telecommunication equipment are some of the factors affecting our performance in the sector,” said Mr Ching’andu.
However, in June this year, the Chinese government said it is committed to ensure TAZARA is revamped to higher standards to ensure the benefits trickle-down to the local people between the two countries.
China’s Foreign Affairs Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi also asked authorities in Zambia and Tanzania to come up with team of experts that will look into the resuscitation of TAZARA since China is ready to offer aid to revamp the railway line.
Mr .Wang was speaking during a bilateral meeting with Zambia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Malanji on the side-lines of the Beijing 2019 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.Mr Wang said TAZARA remains an important symbol of cooperation involving China, Tanzania and Zambia and as such, it was important to modernize the railway line.“TAZARA is an inspiration from our founding fathers and China is committee to help revamp this railway to higher standards that will ensure smooth operation because it is an important symbol of cooperation,” said Mr Wang.
Owing to the importance of the railway line, Mr Wang called on Tanzania and Zambia authorities to come up with feasibility roadmap that would see a full resuscitation of TAZARA if the two countries were to realise more economic benefits of the whole railway line.
This was because TAZARA set the tone of cordial bilateral ties in line with vision of Dr Kaunda, and the founding member of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman Mao Zedong.
Zambia remains one of China’s best friends. As of today, the cooperation was implemented smoothly with a shared alleyway of development.
If well harnessed and operate at full scale, Mr.Malanji said TAZARA has potential to increase economic growth of Zambia especially that Government was investing in railway transportation.
The people of Zambia, just like their counterparts in Tanzania are eager to ensure the two countries attain more sustainable development and the TAZARA provides beneficial opportunities to create more benefits taking advantages of the countries location in the continent.