The Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) has announced the purchasing of six new Diesel Electric (DE) mainline locomotives from China and the re-commissioning of two out of four heavy duty gantry cranes during the month of November 2012, describing it as a major boost to the company’s operations.
The company said the two projects mark significant progress and a major step towards the completion of the implementation of capacity building projects under the 14th Protocol of Economic and Technical Co-operation (14th Protocol), which was signed by the governments of China, Tanzania and Zambia in December 2009.
TAZARA Managing Director, Mr. Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika said the management of TAZARA was confident that much more was on the way to be delivered by all stake holders working positively and rendering appropriately focused and effective support to overcome challenges of undercapitalization, inadequate working capital and the genuine concerns of employees.
Mr Mbikusita-Lewanika said although TAZARA is already has an over-stretched financial situation was making it difficult to meet some of the expenditures related to the projects, such as Port charges and commissioning aspects requiring to be paid for locally the company was committed to change the state of affairs.
He said that the additional six locomotives are expected to enhance motive power to the drastically dwindled capacity and reverse the declining performance that has been witnessed in the past years.
This is contained in a statement made available by TAZARA public relations manager Conrad Simuchile yesterday.
Mr Mbikusita-Lewanika said the company appreciate this contribution towards capacity building in the form of the long awaited six new locomotives and the four strategically located gantry cranes, but much more is required towards a comprehensive and conclusive resolution of challenges that have dogged TAZARA for more than three decades.
He said that all projects under the 14th Protocol were originally scheduled for completion by the end of 2011, but encountered difficulties that caused delays but was happy that the difficulties have nevertheless since been addressed and overcome through collective efforts on the part of TAZARA, the projects’ implementing agents of China and the three governments, paving way for conclusion of the projects.
“We are delighted to be on the last lap to completion of all the projects under the 14th Protocol, even as we continue to face some challenges. But we are determined to meet these obligations, and have been soliciting all the understanding and assistance we need from various parties,” he said.
He said the six 3000-horsepower DE locomotives, which are manufactured in China under license of General Electric Company of the United States of America, have already been cleared from the Port of Dar es Salaam and transferred to the TAZARA Dar es Salaam Workshops where they are awaiting final release and hand-over from the Chinese suppliers.
Meantime, Mr Mbikusita-Lewanika said the Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi based gantry cranes, which have not been operational for many years, have now been rehabilitated and re-commissioned, leaving the Kasama and Makambako based ones, to be commissioned within the coming four months.
This development will uplift container loading and offloading activities at the two ends of the line, further promising the revival of container transportation throughout the line once the other two gantry cranes at Makambako and Kasama are also fully rehabilitated.
does it include tanzania? if so then how is their contribution.
Phew,glad its not planes that were purchased because zambia has yet to figure out how to run an airline.
fix the rail line first
No.1 – Ba Mude what do you mean TAZARA is owned by both Zambia and Tanzania and the protocols are signed for TAZARA and not for individual state. However both states have an obligation to support TAZARA depending on their capacity, Nevertheless TAZARA assets are owned on a 50/50 share.
THIS MAN HAS NEVER PROPELLED ANY COMPANY FORWARDS. HE HAS ALWAYS RUN THEM DOWN. KK GAVE HIM KITWE CERAMICS (BRAND-NEW), HE BANKRUPTED IT AND RAN IT DOWN. IT HAPPENED TO SEVERAL OTHER COMPANIES. I WONDER WHY THEY KEEP HANDING HIM COMPANIES TO RUN DOWN. WHICH CERAMIC COMPANY HAS FAILED IN THIS WORLD. HOW CAN ONE FAIL WHEN ALMOST ALL TOILET PANS, TOILET SINKS AND SOME KITCHEN SINKS ARE CERAMIC. NOT ONLY THAT- THERE ARE NUMEROUS CERAMIC PRODUCTS NEEDED ALLOVER THE WORLD AND NOT ONLY IN ZAMBIA.
You really hate the man!
THIS MAN IS BORING. BA AKA MUDALA MULESAMBILILAKO NAKUBANENU HOW TO RUN THESE THINGS. THIS TIME TAZARA SHOULD HAVE EXPANDED TO MBALA AND MPULUNGU FROM NAKONDE, LUWINGU AND MPOROKOSO FROM KASAMA, SAMFYA/MANSA/MWENSE/KAPUTA FROM SERENJE. SURELY, ARE WE GOING TO HAVE MANAGERS WITH NO EXPANSION PROGRAMS. CHIRWA, PLEASE CAN YOU WAKE YOUR FRIEND UP FROM HIS ENDLESS SLEEP?
there are a bit of sense in what you write..
AKA has no shame to be rejoicing about the six new Diesel Electric (DE) mainline locomotives, which arrived at Dar port 3 months ago, but could not be cleared because of his poor management. Betweem 10 & 15 November 2012, TAZARA had a serious strike on the Tanzanian side due to poor management, delayed payment of salaries & the CEO who travels endlessly making allowances while this company collapses. On Tuesday 11/11/2012 the Express train never left Dar for Zambia due to strike action. From 30/11/2012 the project team had completed the crane recommissioning at Kapiri & were ready to move to Kasama but could not go due to shortage of Diesel within TAZARA. Each project team member was being paid in hard currency (US$) for each day they delayed and the days were more than 10 days.
Within all this confusion for the Crane rahabilitation project, at Kasama there was also a go-slow & site preparation works were NOT being done. This implied the project team got to Kasama & started waiting for site preparations, but remember TAZARA is paying for all this delay. As if to add insult to injury, the workers of TAZARA have not been paid their September, October & November salaries. This is the company AKA is being allowed to continue mismanaging at an alarming rate. Is the PF government so much in lack of informers, I am just a sympathiser & I don’t even work for TAZARA, but this is uopsetting to me.
By the way, I forgot to mention that while all this mismanagement is carrying on, copper cargo loadings at Kapiri Mposhi are overwhelming. So, how come TAZARA cannot come out of the mess it is in, simple & straight forward answer, mismanagement. AKA travels arround thw world like a butterfly earning travel allowances while TAZARA is vandalised and workers and totally demoralised. This is an absolute shame to both the Zambian & Tanzanian government.
That’s the sole reason why the Kapiri Mposhi based gantry cranes, which have not been operational for donkey years, have now been rehabilitated and re-commissioned and fired up specally for that purpose and linking up with ZRL.
clive chilwa aasala
The surprising thing here…well not so surprising anymore is the fact that they buy electric trains but the infrastructure is not in place to run them?! What’s the point? Or is the thinking on the lines of: we’ll run them on diesel, generate money that way which in turn will fund the electrification of the railway…mmmmh
…and he is “highly educated” with a chain of degrees not so?
… I think Chirwa quit the job, where is he, while his friend Aka is so busy working
There is really nothing to cheer about here as these Engines will not be running at full output as the rail track is a hazard and in appalling state; locomotive derailment and delays on this track is the norm and is the order of the day. This likened to buying brand new state of the art buses when all roads in the network are untarred or have pot holes. The loyal workforce is de-motivated; poor conditions for cabin crew, pensions have not been paid to retired workers and the track maintenance crew manually reinforce the track with gravel using hand tools like garden racks something that a heavy automated railtrack machine should carry out and the workshop is just a both grave yard and museum.
Squarely placing the blame on the managing director is misplaced as both the Tanzania and Zambian gov’ts are to blame asthey have neglected this company over the decades; some of these companies just need a passionate “intrapreneur” individual with an eye on keeping costs down and a focus on profitability…sadly the MD has not been awarded those tools to do the job adqueately. Imagine a $3million trailer load of copper sheets being sidelined because of lack of fuel or derailment up the line.
A former BBC award-winning filmmaker/reporter Sean Langan did a moving and often funny documentary about TAZARA that’s on youtube called African railway in 2009 here is the link;
youtube.com/watch?v=1IhUyG0ohRk
*adequately
im scared to check out your link bro…sinifuna nakulanga, nifuno vala menso yanga hahaha//
lol Check out its very informative and hilarious at the same time…the reporter follows workers on the job even to their homes who are very honest about the conditions but top management and the top Chinese expats are all camera shy and playing hard to get!!hahaha I don’t why they don’t show these documentaries on ZNBC, although it showed the Good Copper Bad Copper over the weekend..which is good start!!
No 11, dont show your ignorance here.Read first and if you do not understand ask. A diesel electric locomotive is one which has a diesel powered engine generating electricity which in turn runs a motor which makes wheels turn through a drive shaft. Very different from the electric locomotive in your mind. This one is powered by electricty supplied by overhead cables.
pROF. cLIVE cHIRWA AT WORK..VIVA EASTERN POWER
Aka is a failure. Why still keeping him with Tazara, please workers have gone for months without pay. This has happened for the first time
thank you for valuable ideas and just excellent info