By NATION REPORTER
ABOUT US$558 million is planned to be invested in Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) to turnaround operations as a strong short-to-medium term measure.
The announcement was made at the virtual meeting of the TAZARA board of directors on Wednesday.
The board said the TAZARA Council of Ministers would soon meet to make a decision on the proposed Revitalisation Bankable Business Plan, whose investment outlay was US$558 million.
It stated in a statement that investment underpinned a strong short-to-medium term blueprint for the required transformational actions necessary to turnaround the operations of TAZARA.
The Board said the performance of the firm for the first half of the financial year 2020/2021 improved by 19 percent in freight traffic compared to the previous first half of financial year, 2019/2020.
It stated that despite a global economic slump due to the Covid-19 pandemic, freight traffic volumes for the first half of 2020/2021 (July-December 2020) increased from 88, 356 tonnes recorded in the previous first half (July-December 2019) to 105, 222 metric tonnes.
“With the addition of 127, 259 metric tonnes moved by Calabash Freight Ltd, through Open Access operations, the total line capacity utilisation for the first half of the FY 2020/2021 aggregated to 232, 481 metric tonnes, up by 19.4 percent compared to the combined volume of 194, 726 metric tonnes recorded in the previous FY’s first half,” the statement read.
The Board said overall passenger traffic for the first half of the financial year 2020/2021 declined by 4.3 percent, dropping from 1, 544, 068 passengers recorded in the previous half year report to 1, 478, 032 in the first half of FY 2020/2021.
It stated that this performance resulted in overall revenue earnings of US$14.88 million, which was an increase of 19.4 percent compared to US$12.56 million that was generated in the first half of FY 2019/2020.
“The Board considered and approved the budget proposals for the transportation of 450, 000 metric tonnes of freight traffic and 3, 400, 000 passengers for the FY ending 30 June 2022, from which US$45.71 million operational and non-operational income was projected to be generated to cover the operations for the year.
“The total projected revenue from both freight and passenger services is US$36.03 million, whilst US$9.67 million is expected from other non-traffic revenues, including revenue from Open Access operations.
“The total operating expenditure projected in this budget period shall amount to US$45.71 million,” it stated.
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