Tanzania has received delivery of the first batch of electric locomotives that will run on the newly built standard gauge railway (SGR) that is due to start operations in July.
A set of five electric multiple unit trains and three passenger coaches arrived in the country last week and were received by the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC).
The locomotives, acquired from Hyundai Rotem in South Korea, can carry up to 589 passengers and travel at average speeds of 160km per hour.
A passeger coach is offloaded at the port of Dar es Salaam on April 3, 2024. PHOTO | COURTESY
Tanzania signed a $295.74 million deal with the Korean manufacturer on July 14, 2021, for the delivery of 17 locomotives, 10 sets of EMUs and one electric locomotive simulator.
“Additional sets of EMU trains are expected to arrive on a monthly basis up to October this year,” the Minister for Transport Professor Makame Mbarawa said while receiving the units at the port of Dar es Salaam.
The electric trains are expected to cut travel time between 300km distance from Dar to Morogoro from five hours on the old metre gauge railway to less than two hours. They are fitted with WiFi, designated seating areas for passengers with special needs, an air conditioning system and CCTV security cameras.
Tanzania’s $7.6 billion SGR project, runs over 1,600km from Dar to Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria and Kigoma along Lake Tanganyika, is being built in five phases by contractors from Turkey and China. The phases are at various stages of construction.
Completion rates stand at 98.90 percent for the 300km Dar-Mogorogo stretch, and 96.51 percent for the 442km Morogoro to Makutopora line.
Makutopora-Tabora is at 13.98 percent, Tabora- Isaka at 5.44 percent and the Mwanza to Isaka is t 54.01 percent completion. The project is expected to be completed by 2025.
