Hapa sielewi wala kupata picha, mtatumiaje haya mavitu yaliyotelekezwa bandari ya Dar, kwenye SGR hiyo ambayo mumeinadi kama itakayokua ya bullet trains.
By Azania Post Reporter
THIRTEEN engine trains which was stranded at the Dar es Salaam Port will now be introduced to the Standard Gauge Railway project once start operations , the Minister for Works and Transport, Prof Makame Mbarawa has said.
Speaking from Bagamoyo where he opened the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) meeting, Minister Mbarawa said already the government has talked with the owner of the said engine trains.
“We have already talked with the owner of the engine trains now it will belong to the government where we expect to send them to the
SGR,” he said.
However, Minister Mbarawa said the engine trains were not stranded at the port since the owner was already known.
It is anticipated when completed the SGR project will introduce a fast and modern train with a speed of 160kph while the freight train will have a top speed of 120kph.
The project is being undertaken by Yapi Merkez Insaat Ve Sanayi of
Turkey and Mota-Engil, Engenharie and Construcao Africa, SA of
Portugal.
Stretching 1,057km from Dar es Salaam to the shores of Lake Victoria, the SGR will be constructed on the same line with the Central Railway Line built by Germans in 1905 from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma and Mwanza
In its plans to revive rail transport through the SGR, the government has tabled a Bill before the parliament seeking to form the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) that will replace the Reli Assets Holding Company (Rahco) and Tanzania Railway Ltd (TRL).
The two companies were formed 20 years ago after the government privatised the TRC to form two independent firms.
Speaking after made an impromptu visit head quarters of the Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) in Dar es Salaam, President Dr. John Magufuli said some locomotives lying idle at the port of Dar es Salaam were imported without any written contract.
Dr Magufuli made the revelations after he made an, where he also expressed his confidence in the bureau in curbing graft and pledged to address challenges facing them.
Although President Magufuli did not go into details in regard to the train engines, he is on record as tasking security organs to probe persons behind the ‘dumped’ train engines – from which the Tanzania Railway Limited (TRL) had since distanced itself.
Reports show that the locomotives were offloaded from an ocean-going vessel, Mesina Line, but no one had since come out to declare ownership.
Azania Post
Stranded engine trains at Dar port to be taken into SGR project