China, Zambia and Tanzania have signed a US$1.4 billion public-private partnership agreement to modernize the 1,860-kilometre line.
A similar signing ceremony was held in Beijing on September 29.
China, Zambia and Tanzania signed a landmark US$1.4 billion agreement on November 20 to modernize the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) line in East Africa.
This follows the announcement earlier this year that the China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) had been awarded a 30-year PPP concession on a build-operate-transfer basis.
The agreement was signed in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, during the visit of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who, along with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and Tanzanian Vice President Emmanuel Nchimbe, participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for the modernization programme. A similar signing ceremony was held in Beijing on September 29.
“TAZARA is a distinctive project that heralds a new era of development and prosperity in Tanzania, Zambia and China,” Lee said, according to Zambian media. Anatolia Agency.
“This agreement will improve the integrity and capacity of TAZARA,” Hichilema said. “We see Tazara as more than just a railway line, but rather an important economic corridor.”
The 1,860-kilometre-long, 1,067-mm diameter line connecting Tanzania and Zambia was built by China and opened in 1976 to facilitate copper exports and fuel imports through Tanzania.
The scope of work of the modernization program includes station rehabilitation, track renewal, tunnel and bridge renovation and associated infrastructure renovation, which is expected to increase freight traffic on the line from 100,000 tons to 2.4 million tons annually.
