Invest in infrastructure, private sector urged

Transport Minister, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe (L) addresses the Great Rift Valley Transport Infrastructure Summit yesterday in Dar es Salaam. 

The government is calling for private sector participation in building the nation’s infrastructure to improve service provision.

Opening a two-day Great Rift Valley Transport Infrastructure Summit yesterday in Dar es Salaam, Transport Minister, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe said more effort was needed to find a lasting solution to the congestion in Dar es Salaam and other cities in the country.


“There is a need to harness private sector financing and to find new mechanisms to address the huge infrastructure deficit – especial in roads and railways,” he said.
Dr Mwakyembe noted that despite efforts made to introduce commuter trains to reduce congestion in Dar es Salaam, there still remains a huge gap to be filled by the private sector.

“There are still a few teething operational challenges faced by the Tanzania Railway Limited (TRL) due to lack of reliable equipment particularly locomotives and passenger coaches…we want the private sector to step in,” said.

Aimed at finding better solutions to improve transport infrastructure, the two-day summit brought different diplomatic corps, international and private sector representatives, government officials in the transport sector as well as Great Rift Valley ministers.

The Minister noted that the Public Private Partnership (PPP) policy (2009), PPP Act (2010) and PPP Regulation (2010) have been in place for the past three years but not much has been realised in terms of marked private sector participation.

According to the minister, the government will continue to advocate the PPP policy to stakeholders so as to attract increased participation noting: “The government has allowed the private sector’s participation in the acquisition and operation of rolling stock where they have received encouraging support from it.”

In the railway sector, Dr Mwakyembe said the intention of the government now is to shift a sizeable chunk of cargo from roads to the railway.

He stressed that this is due to the fact that road transportation has been the dominant mode in the country accounting for over 80 percent of passenger traffic and over 95 percent of freight traffic.

“This high reliance on road transport has resulted in premature deterioration of our road infrastructure,” the Minister said.

He went on to announce that the government has entered a joint standard gauge railway project with Rwanda and Burundi from Dar es Salaam to Isaka-Keza to Kigali (Rwanda) and Keza to Musongati (Burundi) to construct a total of 1,591 kms railway line. “All necessary studies have been done and all that remains is to look for partners to develop the railway line,” he said.

In a related development, Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Authority (TTFA) Infrastructure Specialist, Eng Charles Sabiiti, reasserted plans to make the central corridor the transport route of choice.

He said one of the strategies is to build a one stop inspection station along the central corridor to increase road safety for commercial freight along the corridor.