We must steer clear of railway infrastructure

 

By Editor

Editorial Cartoon

Among habits that have been common in Tanzania is negligence or utter disregard of laws and regulations guiding various operations.

 

For instance, it is common to see people carrying out petty business like selling goods at bus stops meant for passengers to alight from or board buses. 

 

Yet other people conduct petty businesses under electric pylons or near electricity substations oblivious of the fact that this is very dangerous to their lives and property, a practice that has been common in both urban and rural areas. 

 

A case in point is the encroachment of railway lines. In some areas people have built houses or other structures very close to the permanent railway  lines contrary to the law. This stipulates that ten or 20 metres on each side of the railway line in urban and rural areas, respectively,  is reserved for railway use and should not be tampered with.

 

But the contrary has been the case, and people have been carrying out activities on such area  as if there is no restriction at all. Such a case was recently observed in Dar es Salaam on the railway line used by the Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA).

 

Witnessing the negligence of the regulations was none other than the  boss himself, the TAZARA regional manager in Tanzania, Fuad Abdallah.

Inspecting encroached areas in the city, he warned members of the public to stop the habit because it threatens their lives and properties.

 

Indeed, his warning has been made at the right time for without issuing it people would not know that what they did was at least not proper and at worst a breach of the law and regulations governing TAZARA.

 

However, we think that encroachment of the railway line is not only restricted to Dar es Salaam. Certainly, there may be other areas along the Tanzania side of the Uhuru Railway to the Tunduma border with Zambia that have similar cases. Restriction should therefore be extended to these areas as well.

 

However, we wonder why this happened in the first place. This is because we understand that in railway operations there are permanent way inspectors whose daily stints include patrolling their sections. 

Among their responsibilities is to make sure that the permanent way is safe for train operations. How they could allow people to put up structures along the railway line beats our imagination. But in Tanzania anything can happen!

 

We regard Abdallah’s visit to the encroached areas in Dar es Salaam it is a wake-up call for the TAZARA management to extend the inspection dragnet to all areas along the Tanzania region.

This might only be the tip of the iceberg; what is the situation like in other parts from Dar es Salaam to Tunduma?

 

Whatever it is, TAZARA must take urgent measures to arrest the situation. People must know that it is illegal and very dangerous to put up structures along the railway line.

 

For a train passing by may get derailed or capsize, and the consequences would be catastrophic to life and limb. People should and be made to avoid doing so.