WITH NEW DIESEL ENGINES, TAZARA SHOULD BE SEEN TO BA A CHANGED PLACE BY EDITOR News that Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) has on Thursday received six new diesel electric locomotives at a price of $24 million is encouraging. It is encouraging because for the past few years Tazara has put up a dismal performance with aged locomotive engines and poor management. Assessments of the railways firm by various individuals and academic institutions indicate that poor performance of the railway line has mainly been contributed by low motivation, insufficient wagons and high competition with road transport, bringing about perpetual losses. Such problems reduced Tazara’s haulage capacity of cargo from one million tonnes before 2010 to 600,000 tonnes later, with strategies being put up to ensure that the railway regains its one million tonnes haulage capacity annually, and even reach five million tonnes in the years ahead. It had also reached a point whereby the railway line management failed to pay its workforce due salaries, prompting workers to go on strike several times, paralyzing cargo transportation of cargo and inconveniencing regular passengers, forcing government intervention. Since the completion of the construction of the railway line in 1975 it has been the most dependable means of cargo transportation to Zambia and Malawi but in recent years its performance has appallingly declined. Experts in transportation state that, marine transport is the cheapest mode followed by railway, demonstrated by how the developed world uses railway as principal mode of transport with any but the shortest distances, for both passengers and goods. After operational, technical and financial problems started engulfing Tazara, businessmen turned to road transport as the principal means of ferrying their goods to the southern countries, from Dar es Salaam port. This in turn created another problem to the government, the requirement for frequent road maintenance, with the Tanzania Roads Agency (Tanroads) saying that it costs more than Sh1 billion to build one kilometre of road to tarmac level. Of course there are transporters who own fleets of lorries and who would not shed a tear if the railway sector remains where it is, but that does not mean that with functioning railways they would have no business. Only the backbone transportation is covered by rails, and all other haulage has to go by trucks. With the commissioning of the engines we hope Tazara will strive to operate at commercially viable levels, reducing the cost of transporting goods not just to Zambia and Malawi but the country’s south western regions as well. The vexing question is how far the railway line’s management can put its house in order, working out current problems. For years now, the public has been calling upon the government to revive the railway sector. Despite the government’s efforts, little has changed on the ground. Unless we take an affirmative action to address the matter, we should be prepared to continue spending more billions of shillings in furtive road maintenance for years to come. SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY ippmedia/frontend/index.php?l=61621
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 04:17:22 +0000
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