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Three-month ultimatum to railway firm
2007-12-18 09:45:49
By Correspondent Gadiosa Lamtey
Tanzania Railway Limited has been given until March next year to improve Central Line train services, whose poor state has sparked off a public outcry.
Infrastructure Development minister Andrew Chenge said in an exclusive interview with The Guardian yesterday that the respective strategic investor, India’s RITES Consortium, ``has no more than three months within which to do something to convince the government that it is up to speed and can deliver``.
Chenge made the remarks in what appears to be a do-or-die situation following a public outcry over the poor state of affairs.
There have been relentless complaints over services, equipment and facilities in respect of both passenger and goods trains since the Indian firm took over in September this year.
``The government is following up the new investor very closely and I appeal for patience and understanding from the travelling public and wananchi.
We have given them (RITES) three months within which to improve their services and if we don`t see positive results, we will see what we can do,`` stated the minister.
The new TRL management has been under constant pressure to improve services, particularly in respect of passenger trains, whose mostly worn-out wagons have been carrying people well beyond capacity.
The minister expressed great concern over the issue of overloading, which is contrary to the safety rules and regulations governing passenger transportation, and advised people using Central Line services to refrain from boarding overloaded trains.
He explained that the government was working hard to ensure it fulfils its obligation of rehabilitating 2,058km railway stretch. However, he warned that the work should go alongside RITES rehabilitating another 648-km stretch.
TRL took over from state-run Tanzania Railways Corporation and started its operations following the signing of a pact between the government and India’s Rites Consortium.
The company has been given 51 per cent shares to operate the firm for 25 years by, among other things, improving services terms of buying new engines and wagons and rehabilitating part of the railway line.
Largely because of the operational problems that faced TRC, including dilapidated infrastructure, the government suspended train services between Dodoma and Dar es Salaam for over a year.
The move negatively impacted on the movement of people and goods between the two points.
Following the suspension, hundreds of people dependent on TRC passenger and cargo services had to travel by road to Dodoma, a huge and costly inconvenience to most.
Under the agreement, RITES was supposed to restore the services between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma in that substandard service delivery was the major reason for the decision to lease the management of TRC to a new investor.
The foreign firm has until now done little to accomplish that, as locomotive failures, overcrowding and shoddy in-train services have become notoriously common.
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