ZAMBIA: Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority and Dar es Salaam Corridor Group have entered into an agreement for the development of a rail-served dry port at New Kapiri Mposhi.
DCG was the winner of a competitive bidding process, and is to develop the facility under a 25-year build-lease-transfer public-private partnership.
TAZARA said the railway would benefit from regular revenue from the lease as well as from the dry port’s daily operations, and would then take over the assets at the end of the concession period.
The deal is ‘a significant development, being one of the first PPP models to be introduced under our strategic vision of engaging the private sector in the full utilisation of TAZARA’s huge idle capacity’, said the railway’s Managing Director Bruno Ching’andu. ‘Above all, this is one sure way of guaranteeing ourselves of additional freight traffic that will naturally accrue from the business generated by the dry port’s operations.’
Tanzania-registered DCG is owned by African Ports & Corridors Holdings, which itself is 60% is owned by African Infrastructure Investment Managers. It is involved in cargo handling around the Port of Dar es Salaam, operating warehouses bulk, multi-purpose and metal terminals. It also has a presence in DR Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.
