By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –

THE Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) has acquired four new diesel-electric mainline locomotives and 18 new passenger coaches valued at US$22.4 million.
The new equipment was purchased through the 15th Protocol of Economic and Technical Cooperation, a trilateral loan agreement that was signed by the governments of China, Tanzania and Zambia on March 26, 2012 in Lusaka, for the supply of various pieces of equipment to TAZARA.
The new locomotives will boost the current daily availability of mainline locomotives by 33 per cent from 12 to an average of 16.
It is likely to raise the locomotive reliability between failures by 18 per cent to 7,098 Kilometres  from 6,015 km recorded in the 2014/2015 financial year.
This is contained in a statement released by TAZARA head of public relations Conrad Simuchile and made available to the Times of Zambia in Lusaka yesterday.
The support funds under the protocols is an interest-free loan to the Tanzanian and Zambian governments  to support  operations of TAZARA.
Witnessing the offloading of the equipment from a vessel at the Port of Dar es Salaam, TAZARA acting managing director, Ronald Phiri said the authority was grateful to the Chinese government for the constant support.
“We remain eternally grateful to the government and the people of China for their constant and positive association with TAZARA, which they helped, build some 40 years ago and have continued to prop up unreservedly throughout the years,” he said.
The delivery of the locomotives and coaches almost brings to completion the 12 projects which were valued  at approximately US$42 million at the time of signing the protocol.
The last of the 12 projects covers locomotive and wagon spares, which are expected to be delivered in December 2015.
The 12 projects also included the supply of two shunting locomotives, various rescue and lifting equipment, track trolleys and  assorted spare parts.
Others are 30,000 pieces of wooden sleepers as well as training of staff in various railway skills and attachment of Chinese Railway experts to TAZARA over a period of three years.