Mr Mushimba said in an interview yesterday that the railway company, co-owned by Zambia and Tanzania, requires railway tracks, wagons, locomotives and other infrastructure estimated to cost US$380 million for the firm to operate effectively.
He said a total of US$900 million may be required to fully revamp the railway company.
“TAZARA has not been performing effectively and the two governments [Zambia and Tanzania] are looking to revamp the railway,” he said.
Recently, China expressed interest in taking over TAZARA through a 30-year concession arrangement although the governments of Zambia and Tanzania are not keen about the arrangement but prefer a three to five years management contract arrangement.
“Chinese firms who have interest in mining want to run the railway to move mining products and equipment through the railway but we can only allow that through a management contract arrangement with specific terms and conditions unlike the 30-year concession contract,” he said.
China’s Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi, who was in the country this week, pledged to give TAZARA a new lease of life through a robust revitalisation process.
Typical Africanism….no positives.Bring back white people to run these facilities, otherwise ..going to bed with Chinese in this case is another time bomb.
That amount feels like peanuts when you consider how old the line and assets are. Don’t underestimate the amount of work required to bring this dinosaur back to life. However, the Chinese are immensely proud of Tazara as it was the first international engineering large-scale project China undertook. Zambians and Tanzanians should swallow their pride and hand this thing back to the Chinese to manage forever. We have failed.
Why Mushimba has a female bodyguard? ?
But before we talk about Revamping TAZARA, can we first explain to the Zambian citizen what this ministry has achieved with the $120 million that was injected into Zambia Railways Limited?
You can let white people manage your wife ii*****. Pathetic little people like you should just shut up.
Why are two governments that have been independent for more than 50 years failing to run this 2000km plus rail line? No wonder African leaders are never taken seriously by their own peers in the west and far east.
PF cannot even fight army worms or deliver farming inputs in time! What about running something “complicated” like Tazara? Zambia is a disgrace, a failed state.
I think that TAZARA is a big fraud: Why is it the only rail network in the world that undergoes EXPENSIVE rehabilitation every year without showing any results for the money spent. Before China spends any more money on TAZARA, let the government of Tanzania review the joint agreement so that there are changes to the MANAGEMENT of the company. Culpability for TAZARA failure lies with the Zambian government that allows bulky, heavy cargo such as oil to be imported via expensive roads and not by rail
Please refresh my memory – did we not last year or the year before – spends millions of USD (borrowed money) on TAZARA ??????????????? What happened to the money, why do we need to spend another 380 million ????? LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES
The Eurobonds were stolen by PF instead. The money was never spent.
When this Rail Line is revamped, they should charge economic rates so that they can manage to maintain the service, not a situation where people are paying peanuts or having free rides or the worker pocketing the money. They should put in place system of buying/ selling tickets which is full proof. Can they just learn from train companies in developed countries, how they have done it etc. They are not so cheap or free
Money was spent on Zambia railways not TAZARA , Money that was given to TAZARA was to pay Pensions to retirees not for rehabilitation. The Eurobond was spent on Zambia Railways, ZESCO , ZAMTEL and the RDA not TAZARA. However, a Management contract is alright but the period of 30 years in question is just too much, let them negotiate something like 15 years or 20years. It seems its there will be massive investment in its transport network and business units( manufacturing workshops) that will help bring back our real engineering. If run well its performance already proves to be far much better than Zambia Railways.
@6 Shimwana, I agree with you! Let us remove some of this burden by allowing those with capacity to run things that we have failed to. In fact we must be thinking about improving Zambia Railways and leave something like Tazara to an independent entity to run it since Zambia and Tanzania seem to have failed to run it well. This railway is now considered an important part of the COMESA-EAC-SADC transport infrastructure whose significance has gone beyond the two countries to a regional dimension. It doesn’t matter if it is run by Chinese but that it is working and adding value to the two countries and the regions it traverses!
THAT MONEY WILL DISAPPEAR LIKE THE EURO BOND ON ZAMBIA RAILWAYS AND NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. LEAVE IT AS IT IS TRAINS ARE STILL RUNNING BETWEEN ZAMBIA AND TANZANIA,