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‘Tazara must stop private access to the railway line’

By PETER SICHALI
GOVERNMENT should suspend Open Access to do away with private operators access the Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) lines, Worker’s Union of Tazara (WUTAZ) has advised.
WUTAZ president Beldwin Mulowa, said it was unfortunate that private operators using the facilities were hauling more cargo than Tazara.
“We feel TAZARA should either suspend the Open Access or do away with the private operators accessing our line because there’s is no way someone just accessing your line can be surpassing you in terms of haulage of cargo,” he said. Mr Mulowa said the decision to have private operators access Tazara lines was rushed and that the playing field which was not levelled.
He said the private operators had literary taken away business from Tazara, making it difficult for the railway firm to operate sustainably.
Mr Mulowa said Tazara was currently facing a lot of challenges including failure to pay salaries for workers.
“You cannot be in the transport business relying on the gate takings from these private operators! You have a workforce to take care of as well as meeting operational costs and as such,” he said.
Mr Mulowa said the gate-takings Tazara was getting from private operators could not help solve the problems the company was facing.

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