TAZARA Southern Africa railway vehicle condition

TAZARA is an integral part of the southern Africa Regional Rail Transport Network. It is a rail link of approximately 1,860 km. long rising at sea level from the East African port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, to New Kapiri Mposhi at 1400m above sea level in the Central African country of Zambia. The railroad is designed with a 1067 mm gauge that permits through traffic operations with contiguous railway of Southern Africa. Equipped with adequate facilities, TAZARA has a designed capacity of 5 million tonnes of freight a year.

TAZARA currently handles exports/imports of both Tanzania and Zambia, railway engineering work vehicle  as well as Malawi, DR Congo, the great lakes region, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The construction of Kidatu transhipment Depot has opened and linked new markets of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. The containerised traffic arriving from South Africa as well as imports through Dar es Salaam port can now be easily transhipped at Kidatu (by TAZARA or TRC) to other destinations in the SADC countries and East & Central Africa.

REGIONAL RAILWAY NETWORK CONNECTIONS

THE SADC CONNECTION
TAZARA constitutes an important part of the transport network of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) states as well as the COMESA states.

TAZARA also plays a major role in trade within the COMESA states railway wagon. Its advantage is that TAZARA connects easily with COMESA member countries in the South with whose Railways it shares a common gauge. It also links COMESA outside the SADC through its interface with the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC) system at Kidatu and with the Ocean shipping system at Dar es Salaam port.

BURUND/RWANDA CONNECTION
Landlocked central African nations of of Burundi and Rwanda in the great lakes region also stand to benefit from TAZARA services, whether their imports are passing through South Africa port or Dar es Salaam. Imports can be moved by Rail from Dar es Salaam to Kasama, Zambia, where they will be transhipped and moved by trucks to Mpulungu port destined to Great lakes countries.

MALAWI CONNECTION
Landlocked Malawi stands to benefit from the TAZARA corridor as the best option for  railway engineering work vehicle  the country’s imports and exports. Malawi imports and exports can be moved from the port of Dar es Salaam to MCCL facilities in Mbeya and vice versa