Tanesco on the spot to guarantee SGR power

The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) substation. Public Investment Committee is worried about Tanesco's power supply to the standard gauge railway when it is finally launched. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

In Summary

• The Tanzania Electricity Supply Company (Tanesco) has been unable to guarantee power supply due to weaknesses in its transmission network, leading to doubts about its capability to provide electricity to the project, which is scheduled for completion in October 2019.

By APOLINARI TAIRO
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Tanzania's Public Investment Committee is worried about power supply to the standard gauge railway when it is finally launched.

The PIC has asked the Tanzania Railways Corporation to table before it in two months, the electricity supply plan for the line, whose construction is now 20 per cent complete.

The Tanzania Electricity Supply Company (Tanesco) has been unable to guarantee power supply due to weaknesses in its transmission network, leading to doubts about its capability to provide electricity to the project, which is scheduled for completion in October 2019.

Tanesco has confessed that it loses up to 16 per cent of electricity through its transmission lines due to the ageing distribution infrastructure.

The SGR line will run parallel to the Central Railway Line built by Germans in 1905 from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, then British government from Tabora to Mwanza from 1923 to 1928, covering some 427km.

The entire 1,230km stretch from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza will be built in phases, with the first phase covering 202km from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro.

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Other phases will cover Morogoro to Makutopora (336km), Makutopora to Tabora (294km), Tabora to Isaka (133km), and Isaka to Mwanza (294km).

Once complete, the new line is expected to transport 25 million tonnes of goods every year from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, Mpanda and Kalema in Tanzania, then onto Rwanda, Burundi and the DR Congo.

The government has allocated Tsh1.5 trillion ($700 million) for the SGR project in the 2018/2019 annual budget.

Tanzania Railway Corporation confirmed this week that the government of Tanzania had signed agreements with those five regions to train the SGR train operators.

The move is aimed at ensuring that Tanzanians are fully equipped with skills to operate the fast train to be introduced in Tanzania, TRC said in its recent report.