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Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority, which had an early agreement allowing Trafigura Beheer BV to run its own trains on the line, plans to invite bids from a “wider pool” of potential investors, it said.
Tazara, as the railway is known, will “consider bids from a wider pool of interested investors” to get more value, Conrad Simuchile, a spokesman for the company, said in an e-mailed reply to questions yesterday. The railway will announce a bidding process for various modes of private participation, he said.
Jointly owned by Zambia and Tanzania, the 1,860-kilometer (1,156-mile) Tazara was built by China with an interest-free loan and has since fallen into a state of disrepair. The company plans to involve private investors in funding and operations in a bid to revamp the line, it said in November.
Impala Warehousing and Logistics International, the Trafigura unit, signed a memorandum of understanding with Tazara in January to run its own trains on the railway that connects Zambia’s copper mines to Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania’s commercial capital.
Trafigura declined to comment on the matter, Victoria Dix, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an e-mail.
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Hill in Lusaka at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at [email protected] Ana Monteiro, Alastair Reed
