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1,000 train passengers stranded after downpour
2006-02-15 07:52:35
By PST Correspondent, Morogoro
Over 1,000 passengers of the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) who were travelling upcountry by train are stranded at Ngerengere and Morogoro stations after a heavy downpour washed away a section of the railway line.
Secretary for Ngerengere Division Job Mchallo told PST yesterday that the railway has been rendered impassable following the downpour that also resulted in flooding in the area.
Mchallo gave the names of the affected areas as Ngerengere and Kinonko stations.
He said that floods had also rendered the bridge linking Ngerengere and other areas of Morogoro Region impassable.
Mchallo said a cholera outbreak was now imminent following the heavy rains and flooding.
By the time we went to press, the passengers were still stranded at Ngerengere station.
Some of the passengers were travelling to Dodoma, Singida, Tabora, Shinyanga, Mwanza and Kigoma.
Meanwhile, police in Morogoro said yesterday that a resident of Ruaha village, Wilson Mwalipindu (40) drowned on Monday in a river that had burst its banks.
Morogoro Regional Crimes Officer Thobias Andengenye, said that the accident occurred when the victim, who was sick, succumbed to the raging floods.
Andengenye said that floods had affected Ruhembe, Kitete and Ruaha villages, following heavy rains that also destroyed property of unknown value that included houses and crops.
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