Govt purchases 11 Dar Port locomotives

By ANNE ROBI

THE government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Progress Rail Locomotives Company (PRL) to Purchase eleven locomotives that were brought to the Dar es Salaam Port.

Director General of Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC), Mr Masanja Kadogosa signed the MoU with the Regional Manager of the Company-Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Barend Hanekom, at an event held in the City yesterday.
The locomotives set to be used in the Metre-gauge railway transport are set to increase efficiency for TRC. Speaking during the event, Mr Kadogosa said the locomotives labelled 9014 to 9024 brought by PRL for sale into the country.
TRC has purchased the locomotives at 2.4m US dollars each. The negotiated price is cheaper as compared to 3.2m US dollars, the government paid for similar locomotives in 2015.
He said the cost was reached following a discussion by the committee formed by the Minister for Works, Transport and Communication, Prof Makame Mbarawa and PRL. “The committee had a discussion with PRL on the cost and agreed to purchase each at 2.4m/- which is 800,000/- less than the cost for 13 other locomotives we purchased from another company in 2015,” he said.
He added: “The locomotives are set to undergo trial in three phases; the first trial will involve visual inspection, load box and lastly the locomotives will load 700 tonnes of cargo from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro, and 1,200 tonnes from Kigoma to Mwanza.”