AFRICA: A US$1·4bn project to revitalise the 1 860 km Tanzania – Zambia Railway was officially launched during a visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema.
Hichilema, Li and Tanzania’s Vice-President Emmanuel John Nchimbi officially launched the project with unveiling of a plaque at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka on November 20. Meanwhile, Tazara has announced the start of ’boots on the ground’ worts in Kapiri Mposhi.
The 1 067 mm gauge Tazara line from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia was originally financed by China and built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corp in the 1970s as a symbol of post-colonial development.
Negotiations for a revitalisation programme have been underway for some time. A MoU was signed by the three countries’ heads of state in Beijing in September 2024, and a further agreement covering a concession and Chinese government support was signed in Beijing on September 29 this year.
‘Tazara is a symbol of the enduring partnership between Zambia, Tanzania and China’, said Hichilema. ‘It is our duty to deepen this partnership.’ He said that the Tazara railway is potentially ‘more important today than ever before’.
Economic corridor
The work to be undertaken by China Civil Engineering Construction Corp under a 30-year concession is to include the systematic repair and upgrading of existing infrastructure including stations, earthworks, tracks, bridges, power supplies and telecoms. it will include the purchase of around 34 locos, 760 wagons and 18 coaches.
Freight capacity is expected increase from 200 000 to 2·4 million tonnes/year within three years, with transit times reduced by two-thirds.
On November 18 a delegation from CCECC’s parent company China Railway Construction Corporation visited Hichilema, who said Tazara should be developed as more than just a transport corridor, and the revitalisation would enable the line to offer more economic value with opportunities in mining, agriculture and other sectors.
‘We should be working to deepen our co-operation and to exploit the resource endowments that sit along the Tazara corridor — an economic corridor rather than just a transport corridor’, he said.
At the launch event, Li said the rail line was a signature project of China-Africa co-operation, and China is ready to assist with building the Tazara prosperity belt and ‘work with Zambia and Tanzania to take the revitalisation of the railway as an opportunity to strengthen infrastructure connectivity’.
