Tanga to Southern Sudan rail link plans

[John Ashworth]

Plans afoot to reopen railway and link Tanga to Southern Sudan

Posted Monday, July 6 2009 at 00:00
The East African

Uganda and Tanzania are also considering opening the Arusha-Musoma railway line to link Tanga port in Uganda with Southern Sudan. Tanga port is the third largest in East Africa.

Tanzania could also gain from the tainted perception the Uganda market has of KPA following accusations that the Kenyan government levies unfair charges on Kampala traders and destroys their goods.

Worse, transport is occasionally disrupted between Mombasa and the Ugandan border.

Dar es Salaam port can handle about 10 million tonnes of cargo a year, compared to 22 million tonnes by the Mombasa port.

Although KPA has tried to change its image, many traders and shipping lines complain of red tape, which has partly led to congestion at the port.

Introduction of electronic cargo tracking systems by KPA across the region so that importers and exporters as far away as DR Congo can monitor the progress of their goods, is yet to yield positive results.

KPA’s case has not been helped by the state of the northern corridor.

Last year, Seamless Transport Services reported that inefficiencies on the Northern Corridor route of Mombasa to Kampala had contributed about 40 per cent of the cost insurance and freight (CIF) of goods imported to Uganda and other countries.

Transport experts say that using a 17-tonne lorry costs $5,000 from Mombasa to Kampala. Transport costs on that route have soared due to bad roads and the new axle-load restriction imposed by the governments.

Additional reports by Kihara Githua, Joseph Mwamunyange and Gitonga Marete

[M. Hardy-Randall]

As John mentioned in an email to me, I had spotted his deliberate mistake. The port of Tanga lies 200kms due north of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, not in Uganda. This is shown in the original text.

[John Ashworth]

Thanks, Malcolm. I posted it in a hurry, just copying it from the East African website without reading it properly, but somewhere in the back of my mind I knew something didn't quite fit!