Tanzania to get 50 millions losses block train

Adela Madyane-Kigoma
Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) incurs a loss of approximately 50 million weekly which is equal to half the revenue of transporting 16 block trains with 20 wagons from Dar-es-Salaam to Democratic Republic of Congo

According to the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC), half of the revenue is lost because when wagons are offloaded to DRC, they return back to Tanzania almost being empty due to lack of cargo a situation which led to great lose

Commenting on this, Masanja Kadogosa, the Director-General of TRC, said it costs 5 million to transport one wagon from Dar-es-Salaam to DRC, with half of them being empty leaves the loss of 2.5 million per trip

As a result of the loss, the governments of Tanzania and the DRC government have reached an agreement to persuade big businessmen from Congo to use the railway in transporting their cargo to avoid empty wagons and prevent losses

“We have agreed to improve the relationship between us by conducting technical exchange visit to identify challenges and walk on them to improve infrastructure, especially to DRC where the railways technologies are still low compared to Tanzania,” said Kadogosi

Despite this, Kadogosa said that there is an increase in freight forwarding to 70% by 2021-2022
Tanzania’s ambassador in Congo Juma Mshana has called on international institutions to help improve DRC infrastructure to achieve business plans and investment goals between the two countries because DRC is laying behind in terms of improved infrastructure

He also called on the two countries to improve security and safety to protect the constructed infrastructures to avoid any happening lose

On his side, Okandgu Flory, secretary-general of the Central Corridor, has asked participants of these countries for their key countries to open up other countries along with five countries these countries within the corridor and bring development to its people