TAZARA Railway (Tanzania-Zambia)
Ferrocarril TAZARA (Tanzania-Zambia)
- Date
- 1970-1975 · confidence high
- Place
- Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- Credited to
- China, Tanzania and Zambia
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A 1,860 km line between Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi (Zambia), built with an interest-free Chinese loan and some 50,000 Chinese workers. It let Zambia export copper without passing through apartheid-era Rhodesia and South Africa.
Built between 1970 and 1975 and officially handed over in 1976; its later performance has been poor for lack of maintenance and its modernisation has been debated.
What it led to
- export of Zambian copper through an independent African port
- a model of China-financed infrastructure in Africa