Nearly 55 years after around 50 000 Chinese workers built the Tazara rail link, a new generation is due to rebuild the line at a cost of $1 billion.The cost estimate was made by a team from the China Civil and Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) early this year.China provided the finance, expertise and much of the labour for the original line, which was built to reduce Zambia’s reliance on routes through the then Rhodesia and South Africa.The CCECC team was led by Peng Danyang, the managing director of the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway in East Africa, which operated as a public-private partnership between January 2018 and May 2024.According to Tanzanian transport minister Makame Mbarawa, the Tazara line has relied on assistance from China, several European countries, and the United States to keep running since the start of operations. Freight volumes peaked at 1.2 million tonnes in 1986, and started to decline steadily in the 1990s as alternative transport routes were opened with the independence of Namibia and the democratic elections in South Africa.Mbarawa was speaking at an April 2024 ceremony to pay tribute to the 70 Chinese experts who died while working on the 1 800-kilometre single-track rail line between 1970 and 1975.Chinese involvement in the refurbishment of the line comes at a time when the United States and European Union are financing the revitalisation of the Lobito Corridor to the west.Mbarawa has missed his own end-of-May deadline to announce a decision on rebuilding the Tazara line.In July, the Tazara board of directors noted the importance of expediting the process to conclude negotiations and have a Memorandum of Understanding signed by September 2024, according to the company secretary Marco Mabala.The September deadline was also given by Zambian transport and logistics minister Frank Tayali when speaking at a May meeting titled “Revitalize Tazara, Promoting China Africa C ooperat ion”.CCECC vice president, Wang Xiangdong, told the meeting that the company was committed to funding the modernisation of the railway infrastructure and upgrading the wagon f leet. The Tazara board approved management targets of 350 000 tons of freight traffic and 3 430 000 passengers for the 2024/2025 year, generating an income of $55.19 million.Tazara managing director Bruno Ching’andu told a Spanish television interviewer that break-even for the current line was 600 000 tons a year.
