China kicks off $1.4B upgrade of Tanzania–Zambia railway

Zambia has kicked off a $1.4 billion upgrade of a vital railway linking its copper belt to an Indian Ocean port, marking the first visit by a Chinese premier to the country in nearly 30 years.

President Hakainde Hichilema launched the overhaul alongside China’s Premier Li Qiang and Tanzania’s Vice President Emmanuel Nchimbi, following a three-nation agreement reached last September to modernise a route with financing from the Mao era, Bloomberg reported.

“The Tazara railway is a signature project of China-Africa corporation,” Li said in a speech in Lusaka, the capital, on Thursday. “China is ready to work with Zambia and Tanzania to let this railway carry hope, brim with new vigour in the new era and provide more momentum for the development of Tanzania, Zambia and Africa as a whole.”

Built in the 1970s with Chinese financing and engineering under Mao Zedong, the 1,860-kilometre (1,160-mile) line, known as Tazara, has deteriorated to a fraction of its original capacity.

Its rehabilitation is expected to ease chronic congestion at regional border posts, where most cargo currently moves by road, especially as Zambia and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo boost copper output.

The upgraded line will also intensify competition with the Lobito Corridor, a rival route backed by the US and the European Union, which links the same copper-rich region to an Atlantic port on Africa’s west coast.