Tanzania Railway

completed

The proposed project involves an IFC investment of up to $44 million to rehabilitate, develop and operate the approximately 2,700 route-km Tanzanian Railway Corporation (TRC) network, under a 25 year concession (the Concession or the project) granted by the Presidential Parastatal Sector Reform Commission of the Government of Tanzania (GOT), to a consortium led by RITES of India (RITES or the Concessionaire) through a new company, Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL or the company). The TRC network extends across Tanzania, with connections to rail networks in Kenya and Uganda in the north, and the TAZARA network to Zambia in the south. The TRC network also transports transit freight between Dar es Salaam (the commercial capital of Tanzania on the east coast and one of the busiest ports in the region) and the land-locked countries of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi as well as eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. At present, the TRC network is owned and operated by TRC, a parastatal enterprise of the GOT. Since 2003, TRC has experienced substantial deterioration in its financial and operating condition, reporting consistent losses and a steady decline in equity. The main business of the TRC network is freight transportation and in 2006, TRC reported annual volumes of about 0.8 million tons of freight, down from approximately 1.4 million tons in 2003. In 2006, TRC also transported about 600,000 passengers per year, down from 685,000 passengers in 2003.