AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government has promised to offer permanent employment to all local experts who have finished repairing one of the seven locomotives to improve rail transport.
On Sunday, Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Isack Kamwelwe commended the experts, saying repairs had met international standards.
He said the repairs of the remaining locomotives were still ongoing in Morogoro’s state-of-the-art workshop, using local experts in collaboration with experts from Malaysia.
He said the ongoing repairs had served taxpayers’ money because the government would spend only 13bn/-, meaning each locomotive would cost about 1.5bn/-. He added that had the government decided to purchase seven new seven locomotives, it would have spent up to 48bn/-.
Having been impressed with the good job, the minister promised to employ the experts so that they could continue serving the nation through their expertise.
Mr Kamwelwe used the occasion to give a progress report on the ongoing construction of $300m (over 695bn/-) Dar es Salaam- Isaka Railway, saying it was in final stages.
Mr Kamwelwe said about 44 wagons and three locomotives were expected to arrive in the country in December this year and March next year respectively.
He said the ambitious 970-km railway project implemented by a Chinese contractor, China Civil Engineering Corporation Construction Limited, was in two phases and the first phase from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro (283km) had been completed and the second phase of 687km from Kilosa to Isaka was in different stages of implementation.
