Nick Phillips, Dar
and John Njoroge, Nairobi
Tanzania is set to test its first, maiden, cheaper and
very superior own funded electric train. The train will be Africa’s fastest at
a speed of 160/h on the longest railway after Ethiopia’s 160/h, 750 km line
train.
Speaking at a historic event to launch the flash butt welding of
the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) exercise that took place at
Soga in Coastal region outside Dar es Salaam, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Eng. Isack Kamwele said first trials for
speedy electric train will be conducted in July this year to cover a section of
the SGR.
Tanzania’s SGR, upon completion of all planned lots, is set to be the
longest line beating Kenya’s Nairobi-Mombasa (609 km) or Ethiopia’s 750 km line;
also far beating South Africa’s 2010 built GauTrain metro (54 km), Egypt’s 42.5
km Cairo metro and Senegal’s 57km metro linking Dakar city centre with the new
Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD).
The
first 300 km phase running from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro with 6 stations
in between will commence its operations in December this year. There will be three passenger trains in phase one
at the starting point that will be taking daily round trips between the two
cities. Each passenger train is capable of making 9 to 12 trips
a day or even more.
The train will use concrete sleepers which improve durability
and give the railway network capacity to carry up to 35 tonnes per axle loads.
The rails can survive up to 40 years before any major repairs while the train
bridge can survive up to 100 years.
So far, over
26,000 employment opportunities have been created by the US $1.9bn project and
more job opportunities will be created in the second phase and subsequent ones
and once the stations becomes fully operational. All this is in efforts to make
Tanzania a middle-income economy by 2025 through industrialization.
“We are geared up towards making history. Next month (May)
we will sign a contract to deliver about 1,400 units (comprising of wagons and
locomotives) that will offer passenger and goods services on the SGR,” said the
Minister flanked by the officials.
Despite the Gautrain in South Africa that can attain 160/h
speed, Tanzania’s will be the fastest electric train on a long line stretching
over 750km beating Ethiopia who is taking the lead now but with a 120km/h train.
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