Government seeks Chinese aid to modernise railway

Tanzania is seeking Chinese aid to modernise the 1,860.5-km Tazara railway linking Tanzania to landlocked Zambia at New Kapiri Mposhi, the New China News Agency, Xinhua, has reported. Xinhua, which is the official Chinese news agency, said on Tuesday that Tanzanian Communication and Transport Minister Mark Mwandosya had expressed "the hope" while welcoming the chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Li Ruihuan, at Tazara's Dar es Salaam terminus. "We seek your support in further strengthening the infrastructure, modernising the locomotive fleet, re-equipping workshops and strengthening the Tazara centre in Mpika," the agency quoted Mwandosya as saying. China, it said, had helped with the feasibility studies, design and construction of the Arusha-Musoma railway line, which Mwandosya said was conducive to the peace and economic growth of the Great Lakes region. Tazara, or the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority, was completed and opened to traffic in July 1975, after five years of construction by Chinese, Tanzanian and Zambian engineers and workers. With 977.3 km of the line in Tanzania and 883.2 km in Zambia, it was built as an alternate lifeline to Zambia during the eras of apartheid in South Africa and the illegal minority government in Rhodesia, now independent Zimbabwe.