China, Tanzania, and Zambia have signed an initial agreement to rehabilitate the long-established Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) in a move aimed at enhancing rail-sea transportation in resource-rich East Africa.
The memorandum of understanding was signed in Beijing and witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with the Tanzanian and Zambian presidents, who were in the city for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, News.Az reports citing Chinese media.
The refurbishment project will focus on the 1,860 kilometers (1,156 miles) of the TAZARA railway.
The single-track TAZARA railway was built between 1970 and 1975 through an interest-free loan from China, offering a cargo transport route from Zambia’s copper and cobalt mines to the sea on Tanzania’s coast that bypasses South Africa and the former state of Rhodesia.
Commercial operations of the line, derided by some Western governments at the time as the “bamboo railway”, began in 1976. The multi-year project had involved the construction of two dozen tunnels and hundreds of bridges by tens of thousands of Chinese and African workers.
Source: News.Az
