“TANZANIA, NOT RITES, IS TO BLAME”
Posted on 10 July 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
The Citizen (published in Dar-es-Salaam), reports that Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL) chief executive officer Hundi Lal Chaudhary, in an interview with the paper, indicated that his company is ready to terminate its contract with the government, which has said it is unhappy with the concessionaire’s performance. But, Chaudhary pointed out, the government would have to give three months’ notice of any intention to end the contract. In addition, it would have to pay the foreign investor Sh54.37 billion ($US43.5m) in compensation for various costs and expenditure by the company during the investment period and a further Sh56 million ($US44,800) owed to a private security firm, Ultimate Security.
The paper continued: “Mr Chaudhary said the ongoing public and parliamentary debate on TRL’s performance was giving the company a bad name. ‘TRL has not failed to run the railways. The problem is here is lack of capital. TRL is being run by shares only from a single party to the contract and yet there are two.’ Rites of India, he added, owns 51% of TRL and the Government of Tanzania, 49%. ‘Since the signing of the contract in 2007, TRL has been run with capital from Rites alone, but it appears that MPs and ordinary citizens are not aware of this,’ he said. When the company started operations, Mr Chaudhary recalled, the railway was in a very bad condition. ”’There was no train plying between Dar-es-Salaam and Tanga [385km] or Kigoma [1,256km] and the central railway passenger train operated up to Dodoma [465km] only. The then Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) had neither engines nor enough coaches for passenger trains.’ “He said that after Rites took the 51% stake, TRL acquired 25 73 class engines, and 23 coaches were leased from India to improve operations. He challenged the MPs to ask the government why it had failed to honour its part of the bargain instead of pointing a finger at Rites as the alleged cause of the problems afflicting TRL. ‘The government has not clearly informed the public about the contract. This is why we are being blamed. But the fact remains that the company was in a really bad condition before its privatisation,’ he said. “He said Rites had shelved plans to pay the terminal benefits of the retired employees until the government remits its share capital.”
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2009-10-05
Dear Sir,
Having visited TANZANIA RAILWAY a few days ago,i tend to agree that TANZANIA RAILWAY personnel are quiet cabable to return TANZANIA RAILWAY to its former efficiecy ,with out other parties being involved, who to my personnel view point, are there for profit for themslves rather than for the betterment of TANZANIA RAILWAYS.
REgards
TOM DAVIS