AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA Railways Corporation (TRC) has been challenged to offer high-quality service so as to create a difference and to achieve competitive advantages.
Works and Transport deputy minister Godfrey Kasekenya made the call in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday during a freight wagons handover ceremony by the World Food Programme (WFP).
“To improve TRC performance and to promote the growth of the rail market, it is crucial to be more committed, improve revenue collection systems and give quality services,” he said.
He said TRC has to ensure that customers are dealt with promptly, courteously and efficiently.
“Listen to their needs and meet them as efficiently as possible; customers will always remember and appreciate such quality services,” he added.
In 2019 March, TRC and WFP signed an agreement for a 1.3bn/- grant to refurbish 40 freight wagons, to enhance the capacity of the recently re-opened Lake Victoria corridor.
WFP uses TRC services to transport shipments for use in refugee camps and similar cargoes destined for Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan. The wagons will be part of TRC equipment used to transport WFP cargo at a concessional rate.
WFP Country Director and Representative, Ms Sarah Gordon-Gibson said over the years, they have been working closely with the government of Tanzania to strengthen the national supply chain capacity.
“This is a significant joint achievement since the corridor benefits not only Tanzania but also the regional operations in Uganda and South Sudan. It is a very cost-efficient corridor since transit time and transport costs have been reduced by around 40 per cent compared to road travel,” she said.
According to her, WFP uses railways as part of a multimodal transport system to move food commodities to its regional operations, in addition to Lake Victoria Central Corridor; they are using Dar es Salaam port for WFP’s operations in-transit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi via Kigoma port.
“Under this model, food is transported by rail to Kigoma port and then across Lake Tanganyika to Kalemie port and Uvira in DRC and Bujumbura in Burundi,” she explained.
From 2018 to 2020, WFP locally purchased 262,000 metric tonnes of food commodities, thus injecting over 160 million US Dollars into the local economy for procurement and supply chain services using the Tanzania corridor.
TRC Director General Mr Masanja Kadogosa called on stakeholders from the private sector to consider investing in freight wagons. He said at least 500 wagons need to be renovated with about 200 being renovated by the government.
He said TRC at present, has 559 wagons where 469 are cargo wagons and 90 are tankers, with the demand standing at 800 wagons.
