By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA
 –

ZAMBIA Railways Limited (ZRL) and Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority
(TAZARA) have entered into an agreement to run a joint passenger route
from Kitwe to Nakonde via Kapiri Mposhi.
ZRL chief executive officer Muyenga Atanga announced in Lusaka that
his firm would introduce the first passenger train from Kitwe to
Kapiri Mposhi and up to Nakonde with effect from June 22, 2014.
Dr Atanga said ZRL had entered into an agreement with TAZARA which
would enable them use the railway line facility for TAZARA.
Dr Atanga said his company had invested close to US$1.5 million into
the operations of the passenger train.
“We are not even going to make a profit we are expecting to make a
loss of something like K200, 000 every month and our ultimate goal is
to reduce this loss further as we go on.
‘‘In line with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) where
Southern African countries are supposed to work together to
interconnect, we have entered into an arrangement with TAZARA to
that effect,” he said.
Dr Atanga said the introduction of the passenger train was in line
with the Government directive of reducing road traffic accidents.
“We are looking at having four train movements in a week, with two of
them headed for Kapiri Mposhi to Nakonde and vice versa.
“We also want
to provide good services to our customers and a coach for snacks or
food facilities will be available,” he said.
He explained that the train would be carrying seven coaches and
expected to carry more than 700 passengers saying that 2,800 people are
anticipated to be moved in a week from Kitwe to Nakonde.
“We may even move between 4,200 and 5000 passengers depending on the
number of movements we are going to make so what it means is that our
people are guaranteed of arriving in Nakonde without problems,” Dr
Atanga said.
He said the estimated time of travel would be 19 hours saying that
this would contribute to the social development of the economy.