By Austin Kaluba –
Last year former TAZARA Managing Director Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika proposed that Zambia and Tanzania should conduct an internal research in the development of TARAZA railways if it is to bounce back to its once viable status in the region.
Mr Lewanika, a competent technocrat and intellectual also said TAZARA needed organisational development in order to reduce and eventually stop the myriad of problems it is facing.

. Lewanika

True to Mr Lewanika’s observation, TAZARA needs total overhaul, something that can only be achieved with massive political will that birthed the regional line.
Critics have realised how honesty and political will led Kenneth Kaunda and his counterpart the late Julius Nyerere to come together and construct the railway line in what has been hailed as one of the region’s most ambitious economic projects.
After a lukewarm concern to revamp the railway line, , there is hope considering that the newly-elected Zambian President Edgar Lungu and his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete have committed their countries to revamping operations of the railway line to improve trade between the two countries.
The political will that birthed TAZARA started fading with the removal of Kaunda from power and the death of Nyerere, two bosom friends who had been critical in the construction of the railway line with massive help from China.
Now with the commitment from the two leaders, there is hope that the railway line that links Zambia to the coast would benefit the two countries economically and socially.
Contrary to the erroneous conclusion that the demise of the railway line was a result of poor management, we feel the problems had more to do with lack of political will.
The poor performance of TAZARA has had grave consequences on Zambia which has seen the country lose out in the transportation of copper.
As things stand, there is hope that copper would once more be transported using the railway system instead of roads.
Mine companies like KCM will resume relationships with TAZARA which were cancelled because of the railway line’s inefficiency.
Another aspect Zambia should consider in the rekindled relationship of the two countries would be the revival of the Mpika locomotive workshop which is now a wretched site despite being of huge economic benefit.
During its operational days, the workshop was a cash cow that generated a lot of income that cushioned the financial problems of the company.
The workshop made school desks, mini tractors and mill balls for the mines besides being used as a quarry to crush stones for road construction.
Though some critics have singled out professional management as the sole reason for poor performance of the railway line, the major problem lay in lack of political will.
Fortunately there is hope that the railway line would once more roar and benefit the two countries in economic advancement.