Funds for 65 wagons ready, rides to start in December
ippmedia.com/en/news/funds-65-wagons-ready-rides-start-december
July 9, 2021
09
Jul 2021
James Kandoya
Dar es Salaam
News
The Guardian
Funds for 65 wagons ready, rides to start in December
THE government has allocated 11.3bn/- this financial year for procurement of 65 Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) wagons with rides and operations set for December.
Addressing reporters yesterday when launching the second meeting of the new board of directors of the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC), the Minister for Works and Transport, Dr Leonard Chamuriho said that the target was to ensure that operations start once construction works are completed.
“I direct the new board and management to get prepared for the long awaited rapid train which comes with new technology,” he said.
“Ensure that your preparations involve training of drivers, technicians and other cadres including signals to enable them to cope with new technology,” he stated.
The new SGR wagons will arrive late November instead of next month due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he said, noting that the government had also set aside 29.4bn/- to remanufacture five locomotives for the main way and 7.9bn/- for five shunting locomotives. Around 7.5bn/- has been allocated for renovating 37 coaches and 600 cargo wagons, he elaborated.
The government also plans to procure 100 wagons worth over 18.8bn/- to be used in the old rail (meter gauge rail), with spare parts for three locomotives worth 3bn/-, wagons and machine worth about 6.5bn/-respectively, he said.
Construction of the SGR goes concurrently with renovating the meter gauge railway to improve its carriage capacity, he pointed out.
For his part, the TRC board chairman Prof John Kondoro appealed to the government to inject more funds for supervising, monitoring and evaluation exercises.
He said TRC experts were still renovating the Dar es Salaam/Moshi/Arusha route to improve the capacity of the track.
Managing Director Masanja Kadogosa said that already technicians are undergoing training to run the new trains when the construction of the SGR is over.
Three years ago, the government said that it would dispatch a team of 167 railway personnel to five countries abroad to undergo training in the operation of the rapid train to run on the standard gauge railway (SGR).
The local experts, whose fields range from engineering to operators, were expected to be trained in South Korea, Ethiopia, China, Turkey and India, with the government signing agreements with the five countries.
“We have selected a team of experts in communication, logistics, technicians, civil engineers and electrical field plus locomotive operators,” he said, with intent to ensure that local experts were fully equipped and trained to operate the rapid train.
The SGR project lwas launched by the late president John Magufuli early in his tenure, being undertaken by theTurkish firm Yapi Merkez, teaming up with Portuguese operators, Mota-Engil. It is expected to link the port of Dar es Salaam with Mwanza, Kigoma and neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi.