(DTIS) Update, Volume 1 – Main report - Enhanced Integrated ...

equired to bring the railway back to a reasonable operating standard. The government of Tanzania hadconcessioned the line in 2007 to get it restored to full operations. However, the concession failed andwas cancelled in early 2011. The low volumes of traffic were compounded by a lack of confidence in therailway operator, which resulted in guarantees necessary for financing for rehabilitation being held back.Though there is now a regionally sponsored proposal to introduce a new standard gauge railwayto replace or supplement the existing one, in the medium term the prospects for a rail basedcorridor operation lie in rehabilitating the TRL line. The Government of Tanzania is currentlyworking with the World Bank on a project for such revival of the line. The risk in the short term is thatessential maintenance of the existing systems will be further neglected in the enthusiasm to shift to thenew system. It is also worth acknowledging that the rail based central Corridor option is about costsavings much more than it s about time. When it is operational train turnaround time is 17 days, with atariff of US$0.065 per tkm. An operational model (Nathan Associates 2011) has indicated that ifturnaround time was reduced to 7 days, traffic could be increased to 1.5mtpa (the level reached in 1994),and tariffs could fall to less than US$0.05 per tkm. This underscores the link mentioned above betweenscale and costs.6.1.3 Lake TanganyikaFreight traffic volumes on Lake Tanganyika using the combination rail/lake are currently verylow. Except for some trade with Mpulungu in Zambia, and aid shipments for the DRC through Kigoma,most of the DRC and all of the Tanzanian flagged vessels operate on cabotage routes (i.e. between portsor landing places in their own territorial waters). While existing capacity is able to meet the currentdepressed level of lake transport demand, this generally involves considerable delay and long cargodwell time in the lake ports of origin.The current fleet operating on Lake Tanganyika is particularly small. A recent study for the CentralCorridor development identified 23 vessels operating on the lake, of which 56.5 percent were 50 years orolder and six were laid up or inoperable. There were no fully cellular container vessels, dry bulk orRoRo vessels operating on Lake Tanganyika, and trade is currently dominated by privately ownedBurundian flagged vessels sailing on north-south routes. There are eight dry cargo barges in the fleet,two of which have a total cargo capacity of 1,014 tons. In addition, there are three general cargo vesselswith a total capacity of 1,500 tons, and three combo carriers with a total capacity of 74 TEUs 96 wereavailable for handling general or container cargo. This fleet would however not be able to meet a futureincrease of transport demand, especially if there is container transport demand driven by increasing GDPgrowth and/or growth realized through increased port efficiency (especially vessel turn-around time) andrailway performance.Bujumbura port is relatively better equipped than other ports on the lake. Bujumbura is the soleport that has the capacity for handling lift-on lift-off (LoLo) containers in the northern part of the lake. Ingeneral, of the six major ports on the lake, only Bujumbura has made a major investment in the portinfrastructure in the last two and a half decades. The main quay, which was built between 1939 and1957, was rehabilitated in 1990 (the 100 m wide apron was resurfaced in concrete and new crane railsand bollards were installed). In addition, the 50 year old rail mounted derrick cranes were rehabilitated in2001. The only other infrastructure project under way is the dredging of the Port of Kigoma and therehabilitation of its slip ways. In September 2010, the Port of Kigoma got a new mobile harbor cranecapable of handling containers. However, the design and age of the wharf limits its effective use to lessthan 100 m of the quay.96 The vessels have capacities of 14, 24 and 36 TEU.100 / 153