After talks lasting more than a year, China last week signed a $1.4bn agreement with Zambia and Tanzania to get the famous “Tazara” railway, which it built in the 1970s, up and running properly again.
Built and financed with a Chinese interest-free loan from 1970 to 1975, the 1,860km, single-track line runs from the Zambian town of Kapiri Mposhi near central Zambia’s copper belt to the port city of Dar es Salaam on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast.
Intended to let landlocked Zambia export its copper and cobalt without going through colonial Rhodesia or apartheid South Africa, it was presented as a demonstration of solidarity between China and the newly decolonised African states.
It has since fallen into disrepair and minimal use.
The deal was signed by Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday, 20 November during a visit to Zambia, Reuters reports.
Reuters noted that it’s the first such visit in 28 years and comes as Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, has made progress in restructuring its debts after defaulting in 2020.
100,000 tonnes to 2.4 million
“We want to work with Zambia to advance the cause of modernisation,” Li said during talks with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema.
The project will rehabilitate stations, track, tunnels and bridges, and build new infrastructure along the line.
According to Reuters, the overhaul is expected to boost freight carried on the line from 100,000 tonnes a year to 2.4 million tonnes.
In another sign of growing confidence in Zambia’s mining sector, on 31 October, President Hakainde Hichilema officiated at the groundbreaking ceremony of a public-private-partnership scheme to upgrade a 371km road out of Zambia’s copper belt to bituminous standard to speed the flow of cargo to the Namibian port of Walvis Bay.
Mining firm Western Corridor Limited is the concessionnaire, having been incorporated by BeefCo Limited and First Quantum Minerals.
• Subscribe here to get stories about construction around the world in your inbox three times a week
