Jun.18--TANZANIAN Transport Minister Harrison Mwakyembe says the country needs to spend more than US$6 billion on infrastructure to win a bigger slice of international trade, if economic development is to progress.
    "In Tanzania the cost of transporting one tonne of goods per kilometre by road is US$0.15 whereas transporting the same weight by rail is $0.07 - that is, half the price. But currently in Tanzania over 95 per cent of heavy traffic is moved by road and only two per cent by railway," he said.
    Dar es Salaam competes against Mombasa in Kenya for landlocked Africa transit cargo, but Dr Mwakyembe said that its infrastructure must be upgraded if Tanzania is to win a larger share of this trade, reports London's Containerisation International.
    Speaking to the Association of African Development Financing Institutions (AADFI), the Dr Mwakyembe said: "If we aim to deliver a better standard of living, then the only question is how."
    Dr Mwakyembe said modernisation work is underway at the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mtwara and planning was well advance in expanding cargo-handling at Mwambani and Mbegani.
    "A port without a railway connection is nothing but a swimming pool," he said.
    He said the government is repairing and upgrading the central railway that runs 2,707 kilometres from Kigoma to Dar es Salaam and is improving the Tanga to Arusha line that covers 438 kilometres. This would be connected to the new inland dry port at Kampala, Uganda, to provide shorter access from landlocked Uganda freight for exports through Mwambani, he said.

(Source:shippingazette)