Tanzania: Tanzania Transportation Profile 2013

 

 

Coverage of transport, electricity and water infrastructure remains inadequate to meet request despite ongoing government efforts. In large towns traffic congestion is becoming challenging. A major road transport project intended to help decongest the capital, Dar es Salaam, has been delayed and, next several adjustments, there are indications that the initial phase will be completed around 2013. Improvements in the inland road network are taking place but a significant boost is needed to ameliorate the underdeveloped network connecting western Tanzania. Prices of utility services, electricity and water remain high as utility companies struggle to finance their operations through tariff increases.

 

Transport in Tanzania is mainly by road, supplemented by rail. Tanzania's road network, is of limited quality and not a lot of roads are tarmacked. Dirt roads become impassable during the rainy season and can remain impassable for days or weeks. Air transport is unaffordable for the vast majority of people. There are few commercial airports, but there are a large number of basic landing strips for small aircraft.

 

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), formerly as well called TanZam Railway. operates 1,860 km (1,156 mi) of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge track (to match Zambian/Southern African networks) between Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia (of which 969 km or 602 mi is in Tanzania and 891 km or 554 mi is in Zambia); is not a part of Tanzania Railways Corporation. Because of the difference in gauge, this system doesn't connect to the Tanzanian Railway Network.

 

However, a container trans-shipment yard to transfer freight containers between TAZARA and Tanzania Railways Corporation trains has been built at Kidatu near Morogoro. This allows containers to be shipped from as far as Uganda and Kenya via the Lake Victoria train ferries and the Kidatu yard to the Southern African rail network via Zambia without leaving the rail system.

 

International highways

 

The Cairo-Cape Town Highway, Highway 4 in the Trans-African Highway network, runs between the northern town of Namanga on the Kenyan border and the Mozambican border town of Tunduma in the southwest, via Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa, and Mbeya.

 

The section between the entrance to Tarangire National Park and Iringa is unpaved and can be difficult at the same time as raining, particularly north of Kondoa. A longer eastern route from Arusha to Iringa via Moshi and Morogoro is paved. This route is 921 kilometres (572 mi) versus 689 kilometres (428 mi) for the Arusha-Dodoma-Iringa route.

 

In southwest Tanzania from Iringa to Tunduma, the Cairo-Cape Town Highway follows the Tanzam Highway linking Zambia and Dar es Salaam.