China-Africa: Tanzania, Zambia mull privatising co-owned railway
DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Tanzania and Zambia are considering privatising a railway they jointly own that hauls the bulk of Zambia’s copper exports to the coast, the leaders of the two African nations said on Tuesday.
The 39-year-old Tazara line was built with Chinese aid and once thrived as a monopoly under the two state-run economies.
But the 1,992 km (1,162 mile) railway has since suffered from poor management, lack of wagons and locomotives, unreliable timetables and problems with track maintenance.
At its peak, it could haul some 2.5 million tonnes of cargo a year, but it currently moves only about a quarter of that. Previous attempts to privatise it have faltered.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete told a joint news conference with his Zambian counterpart, Rupiah Banda, in Dar es Salaam that a council of ministers from both nations were studying the issue afresh. He gave no further details.
The two leaders said their governments also planned to rehabilitate a 1,710 km (1,060 mile) crude oil pipeline linking their countries, as well as a single point mooring unit at Dar es Salaam harbour used to receive crude oil tankers.
The jointly owned pipeline was commissioned in 1968 to handle 1.1 million tonnes of crude a year. But old equipment and financial difficulties mean it now carries only 600,000 tonnes. (Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Louise Ireland and Daniel Wallis)